PSLAYR
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: BtVS/Psyren manga Crossover. Xander finds a Psyren card and uses it despite his friends warnings. After his first "game" he wishes he'd listened. Set during Season 3 of BtVS.
1. Preliminary

Title: PSLAYR

Author:Joshua

Disclaimer:BtVS and all related characters belong to Joss Whedon. Psyren and associated concepts belong to Toshiaki Iwashiro and Shonen Jump magazine. Any non-related characters I made up on my own, some based on other fictional characters, or who knows maybe even real people. Please don't sue me.

Summary:BtVS/Psyren(manga) x-over. Xander finds a Psyren card one day and tries it out just for fun, despite his friends warnings. After his first "game" he wishes he'd listened!

Preliminary:

_Earth_

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Wilkins Memorial Cemetery_

_Night_

"And another one bites the dust," Xander sings as the vampire Buffy had been fighting for the past couple minutes was finally slain.

"Give it a rest, Xan," Buffy groaned, pocketing her wooden stake.

"Yeah dweebo," Cordelia snapped at him, "Do you have to say that every time Miss Superhero does her thing? It's getting really old."

"Uh, thanks for the support Cordelia," the blond vampire slayer remarked as they moved on.

"Oh come on, it's what I do, I'm comedy relief guy, remember?" Xander shrugged, smiling at them.

"Still..." Willow trailed off.

"Et tu Willow?" the brunette teen misquoted.

She shrugged, then gave him a naughty smile and stepped closer to her boyfriend, the laconic werewolf named Oz. Just Oz. Go figure.

"Moving on," Buffy tried to steer the conversation away from any kind of fight between her two best friends. "If you guys want to move on to the Bronze or head on home, I can finish up patrol on my own. Faith's covering the area around her motel tonight anyway, so I've just got one more graveyard and then I'm done for the night. I can meet up with you guys later..."

"Aw, but I brought all my tools for slaying," Xander mock-whined. He held up his cross and stake as evidence before putting the stake in his back pocket. "Not even going to let me get one, Buff?"

Buffy shot him a look, then said, "Xander, while I appreciate the offer, I really don't want you guys getting hurt doing my job. I'm the Slayer. Well, a slayer counting Faith. But we're the ones that actually have to fight and kill vampires. You guys don't have to do any of this."

"Just because we don't have to, doesn't mean we can't choose to," Xander responded.

"The day good people do nothing, is the day evil triumphs," Oz misquoted. To which he got a kiss from Willow for.

"I'm actually all for not getting hurt, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to put in an appearance at the Bronze before they close, would it?" Cordelia remarked.

"OK, fine, but let's at least all go together. And keep Buffy from sneaking off to go see Angel," Xander stated with a disappointed glare in the blond's direction.

Buffy ducked her head, blushing fiercely now, and decided to concentrate more on killing vampires.

"Do you really have to keep bringing that up every fifteen minutes?" Cordelia harshly whispered to her boyfriend. He shrugged unrepentantly and put his arm around her waist, pulling her close. She smiled, but tried to hide it, putting her hands over his on her hip.

They walked along quietly, enjoying the evening, but also keeping their senses open, listening for any screams or sounds of vampires. Buffy out front and the two couples trailing along behind, seemingly in their own little worlds, but actually as alert and ready as an experienced front line soldier.

One might ask what kind of world is it where teenagers, in their own hometown, have to be as alert as those sent off into combat. Sunnydale, CA unfortunately just so happens to have the highest death rate of any city you'd care to name on the North American Continent. Potentially some South American cities too.

The reason for is simple, yet impossible to believe.

Beneath the streets of Sunnydale, or more specifically the local High School's Library, lies the _Boca Del Inferno_, the Mouth of Hell. Or in American-speak; Hellmouth. A literal gateway into hell, where demons and who knows what else resides. It has the unfortunate side effect, just by existing, in drawing in supernatural creatures, such as vampires, werewolves, the odd demon or 50, and just so happens to be the site for where a lot of things try destroying the world a lot.

One of the people that was drawn to the Hellmouth was none other than Buffy Summers, the Slayer, the one girl in all the world given the strength and power to face and kill the vampires, demons, and general forces of darkness and stop them from destroying the world. Some of the first people she met were the ones walking along with her even now.

They were all just ordinary kids until the day they met Buffy. Things happened around her, things that changed each of them in significant and amazing ways. Xander was forced to kill his best friend, Jesse McNally, who'd been turned into a demonic vampire shortly after the Slayer arrived in town. Cordelia fought to remain normal and most popular girl in school for as long as possible, but eventually she had to face facts and ultimately decided that helping Buffy meant keeping the world, and more importantly the High School and all the shopping malls in one piece. Willow, Xander's Bestest Friend, was a wallflower computer geek that was on a guaranteed track of misery and mediocrity throughout her High School career. Then she got a BFF, Best Female Friend, in Buffy, and gained confidence and learned that she could use magic and was fast becoming a talented witch. Willow's boyfriend Oz, had just been your average bass-playing silent member of the local rock band, until he got bit by his cousin and became a werewolf.

All of them unique, all of them able to put the blame of their uniqueness squarely on the shoulders of the petite blond they followed even now. And they thank her and God for it each and every night.

Finally, after about a quarter of an hour of walking, they reached the last cemetery on their patrol. They all kept alert, and the casual conversation ceased as they went deeper in amongst the gravestones. Though they were experienced at this by now, even Cordelia and Oz, the only one of them allowed to be cocky was Buffy, and she herself was quiet and alert.

Soon they either attracted the attention of, or just bumped into a small group of vampires equal in number to their own. The demon-animated corpses were already 'vamped out' showing their demonic faces, cutting down on the pre-fight chatter. The moment the undead saw a bunch of teenagers walking along in a graveyard at night, they came to one obvious conclusion.

Free Lunch.

Buffy came to her own conclusion, and faster than the vampires did.

Kill Demons. Protect Friends.

Not necessarily in that order, but it resulted in the same thing either way. She pulled out her wooden stake and surged forward with an impressive burst of speed. The first vampire was dust before the rest knew what hit them, and after that they were too busy fighting Buffy to pay much attention to the other teens.

While it was impressive that Buffy could fight four vampires at the same time, they all knew that she didn't stand much of a chance unless she could lower the odds some more or the vamps were incredibly poor fighters. Which, unfortunately, they were not. The gang was not about to stand around on the sidelines however.

Xander pulled out a small single-handed battle ax and charged the vampires attacking Buffy's rear. Oz and Willow pulled out a crossbow and some wooden bolts for it. Cordelia pulled out her own stake as well as a cross and a bottle of holy water made ready to throw.

"Xander! Don't! I got this!" Buffy shouted when she noticed her friend charging into the fight.

Almost as demonstration of her claim, she punched the vamp she was grappling with in the gut before tossing him back and away, right before leaping up in a spin kick that fully connected with the other three vamps trying to tackle her and sent them crashing to the ground, holding their faces in pain. Say what you will about vampires not needing to breathe, they can still feel pain as much as anything.

"Oh, no, I wasn't gonna, I mean I..." Xander trailed off, and then handed her the ax. "Uh, here. I think you can probably do more with it than I can at this point."

"Thanks," she smiled, and then gave him a _look_.

"I'm gonna..." he gestured back to the gang.

She nodded and agreed. "Yeah. You should do that. Like right now." To emphasize her point, one of the vamps tried to blindside her, but she spun on her heels, swinging out with the ax he'd given her and decapitated the vampire in a single stroke.

Xander quickly turned to run back to the others, but he saw something that almost made his blood run cold instead. Thinking quickly, he charged forward again, this time just off to the left from the others, because that's where the vampire Buffy had thrown was now stalking towards them, and from the looks of it they didn't even see it there.

"Cordy! Stake!" he shouted, startling all of them, his girlfriend most of all.

Thankfully, her instincts were better trained than she was and she tossed him the stake immediately, as well as the glass vial of holy water. Xander caught it and then immediately threw it at the vamp he was targeting. The glass shattered against the demon's skull and its skin began to boil like acid.

"Ahhh!" the vamp screamed, startling Oz and Willow into turning around to face it. Before they could get a bead on it to use the crossbow, Xander rammed into its side, leading with the stake. Thankfully the vampire was too out of it to do much to fight back and it gave Xander the time he needed to raise the stake and to get enough force behind it to drive it home into the undead creature's chest. Moments later he was sitting in a cloud of dust and face to face, ironically enough, with a red and black phone card.

"Huh?" he uttered under his breath.

"That's weird," Xander said to himself, picking the small piece of rectangular plastic up. It was his experience that everything the vampire was wearing or had on when staked through the heart or killed basically, all of that went to dust with the rest of it. And he was equally certain that this phone card hadn't been in the grass prior to the vampire dusting. It might have fallen out of it's pocket when he tackled it, but he doubted that.

By the time he got back to his feet, Buffy had already finished off the other two vamps, although the last one had almost gotten away if it hadn't been for Willow shooting it in its left butt cheek, giving Buffy enough time to catch up to and re-place the arrow to the back side of the vamp's heart. Seeing Xander covered in dust made Buffy less than happy, but understanding what he did and why he did it made it easy to forgive him for almost getting himself killed. She even managed to squeeze in a compliment or two, though it was tough to find amidst all the Buffy-speak.

"Xander! What were you thinking charging in like some kind of idiot?! You could have gotten yourself killed! I had it handled!" she shouted at him. Then blushed and glanced at the others for a moment before muttering, "But, uh, thanks. You, uh, didn't have to do that. But I'm glad nobody got hurt. Nobody got hurt, right?"

"No, but thanks to _my_ boyfriend," Cordelia preened, immediately on Xander's arm, "and no thanks to Miss Superhero Slayer letting that one almost attack us. You're the one that needs to be shouted at!"

"Cordy," Xander patted the buxom brunette's hands comfortingly, while smiling and feeling like doing a bit of preening himself. "Buffy did the best she could. And so did I. I am actually of the opinion that nobody needs to be shouted at right now. How about you guys?" he asked Willow and Oz.

"I'm good. No shouting," Oz replied.

Willow just grinned and mimicked Cordelia in hanging onto her boyfriend. Oz, for Willow that is.

"Hey, what have you got there? Is that a new credit card? What are you doing with a credit card?" Cordelia asked, referring to the card in his hand.

"Uh, no, it's not a credit card," Xander told her. Then frowning to himself, he looked it over once again. "I think it's actually a phone card. No credit card hologram anyway, plus there's this number that kind of looks like a phone number on the back here."

"What is it?" Cordelia asked again, this time looking at the front, squinting in the low light to read it.

"P-S-Y-R-E-N? Puh-cy-ren?" she sounded out.

"No, the 'P' would be silent in that case," Willow automatically corrected her.

Cordelia frowned, before what she said filtered through her brain and she said outloud with more than a bit of confusion. "Psyren? As in siren? I've never heard of that company."

Willow stopped in her tracks, which immediately stopped Oz and had the others turning back after only a couple of steps, looking back to see what was wrong.

"Xan-Xander..." Willow's voice was shaky when she spoke. "C-c-can I see that card p-please?"

"Uh, sure," he shrugged and handed it over. "Why?"

Willow dropped it the moment it was fully in her hands. For good measure she even took five giant steps back from it and did not take her eyes from the rectangular piece of plastic the entire time.

"Uh, Wills? You OK?" Xander asked, now highly concerned. He wasn't the only one.

"Th-th-thats a _Psyren card_!" Willow exclaimed, pointing wildly.

The others just looked at her, unsure at how to respond. Looking up at them, seeing they didn't understand her fear and reaction, she continued. "You know, Psyren! Nemesis Q! Elmore Woods 500,000,000 Yen payout of any information regarding Psyren? Mysterious disappearances all over the world, localized in Japan? Am I the only one with access to the internet?!"

"Among this group?" Xander pointed out to her. "Five hundred million?"

"Yen," Willow snapped at him automatically. "Exchange currency would put it at five million dollars U.S. plus change. I thought it was an urban legend."

"That _what_ is an urban legend?" Buffy asked, growing concerned by this point.

Xander picked the card back up, ignoring Willow's cry, "Don't touch it!"

"It's just a card Willow," he said after another examination. "What's this about?"

Willow took a breath and let out a heavy sigh. "We need to go to the Library. Get Giles. It'll be easier if I can show you, and he can see for himself. Maybe the Watchers have come across this sort of thing before?"

"_What_ sort of thing? And can we go back to the five million dollars thing?" Cordelia said.

When the rest of them turned to stare at her, even Oz, she shrugged and replied, "Hey, everybody can use an extra five million dollars!" They shrugged and resumed following Willow towards the High School. Besides, she was right about the money at least.

Less than half an hour later, they were all gathered in the Sunnydale High School Library. Giles had called Faith in, and Buffy had called Angel, claiming he might have some insights from the demonic underground. The Psyren card, which only Xander had handled up to this point, was currently placed on the central long wood table, the space around it cleared away so they all had unfettered access to it.

"Now what, what is it exactly that you've asked me to look at here?" Giles asked, wiping his spectacles clean with a white handkerchief, a nervous tick the gang all assumed was associated with being a Watcher.

"Giles!" Willow cried, feeling almost betrayed by the man's obtuseness. "This has been going on long enough that there's practically a cult following of it! Don't tell me you haven't heard of Psyren either?"

"I'm sorry, sigh-what?" the Englishman asked, confused.

Willow threw up her hands and gave an inarticulate scream of frustration.

"Apparently," Xander took over for his distraught friend, "that card there," he pointed to it on the table, "is part of some conspiracy, starting in Japan of all places. There's this creep called Nemesis Q that apparently kidnaps people from all over the world, then returns them after making them play in some "game" that nobody knows anything about. Those that are part of it are apparently forbidden from speaking about it to anyone not also involved with Psyren. Oh, and there's some lady named Elmore Tenjuin that's offering like five million dollars to anyone that con provide her with any information regarding Psyren or Nemesis Q at all. That much, I only know cause Willow was babbling the whole way here."

"She actually used lots more words with more syllables apiece, but nice recap Xan," Buffy agreed.

"Thanks," he blushed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Elmore... Tenjuin, you say?" Giles trailed off and took his spectacles off again. This time he chewed on the end a bit, telling the teens that he was trying to remember some inane detail that was usually the very clue they needed to save the day.

Willow stopped her ranting and stared at Giles alongside all the others, waiting patiently.

"Giles!" Buffy snapped at him. "Speak!"

OK, maybe not so patiently.

"Oh, sorry, I was just remembering... I used to know her. Her and her husband Koper. They were rather powerful psychics, and made quite a bit of money through fortune telling. Particularly after they went international. They retired shortly before I moved here to Sunnydale. I had heard that Koper died rather recently. She's offering a reward for people to figure out this... this Psyren, you say?"

"Five hundred million yen, Japanese currency," Willow reported.

"Hm," Giles put his glasses back on, but was clearly still turning things over in his mind.

"So what's this supposed to do anyway?" Faith finally lost patience with the silence.

"Nobody knows," Willow answered. "That's just it, normally there would be people talking about this sort of thing all over the place, even if just in conspiracy circles. Instead, everything about Psyren is a complete mystery. Anybody involved does not talk about it at all, and after they get involved, they hide the fact that they are involved. Even demons and vampires get more notoriety, what with the Watchers having books all about them and everything. The only thing anybody knows about Psyren is that it involves these phone cards and some mysterious character named Nemesis Q. Nobody knows how Nemesis Q picks his victims or how he grabs them or where they go or even what Psyren is all about. Nothing!"

"Although, I'm kind of hoping that since the Watchers _do_ have all these books on demons and vampires, that they might have a book or two on Psyren too," she shyly admitted, looking hopefully at Giles.

"No, I'm sorry," he said, "This is the first I've heard of it. I'll make some phone calls however, see what all I can find out. In the meantime, I suggest hiding this... phone card away for now. When we know more we can determine whether or not to destroy it or use it in some way."

"Aren't there like hundreds more out there though?" Xander asked.

At everyone's looks, he continued, "I mean Wills said it, people all over the world are involved with this Psyren thingie here. The only things known is the name of the game, the name of the game master, and that it involves these phone cards. That means that more phone cards are out there if they're so easily recognized."

"Hm, you have a point Xander," Giles admitted. "Still..."

"Just because we have this card doesn't mean we automatically join the game, right?" Buffy asked.

"No, I think you have to use it. Like stick it in a phone and make a call with it or something," Willow answered.

"Maybe I should hang onto it?" Faith offered. "Keep any demons from getting a hold of it. A vamp was carrying this around right? Probably was going to use it too, but Xander here dusted him first. Might mean the demons could be involved in this, right?"

"Then why not let Angel hold onto it?" Buffy offered, looking towards the shadowed corner where her ex-sort-of-boyfriend stood.

"I'm not touching that thing," the broody vampire immediately stated.

Buffy startled, while the others all stared at him in surprise.

"I don't know what it is, and I don't know how that other vampire was even near that thing, but... There's something about it that makes me... uncomfortable," Angel told them. It was only now they realized that the vampire was standing as far away from the table as he possibly could without leaving the room entirely.

"Uncomfortable how?" Xander asked him. "Gotta be specific man. If we're talking cross or holy water bath uncomfortable, then I say we all get one."

"It's giving me a headache," Angel finally snapped at the boy. "And vampires don't get headaches. Not like this one. It's like... my brain is on fire and is set to explode or something. If that other vampire really was carrying this on him, he was either immune, or he was really young. Like less than a year old as a vampire."

"He might have even had it on him already _when_ he was turned," Faith pointed out.

"Heh, exploding vampire heads. That would be kind of cool, don't you think?" Xander mused out loud.

"Only you would say something like that," Cordelia said to him.

"Well, for the time being..." Giles started to say, but Xander interrupted him by picking up the card.

"Tell you guys what. Since I found it, I'll hang onto it. Nobody knows we've got it anyway, and unless there's a way of tracking it, they'll just think we left it in the Library, even if they did know. Unless they've got a way of tracking it, in which case better it _not_ be in the Library or at Faith's motel where she'll be alone in defending it."

"And your place is so much better?" the brunette slayer argued.

"A; it's not something our typical enemies would expect," he held up a finger for each point. "We usually leave stuff we don't want the bad guys to have either here at the Library, or guarded by a Slayer. B; if somebody is tracking this thing, I'm within running distance of both Buffy's and Willow's houses, and ten minutes away from the school or even Giles place. C; Faith's motel is at least fifteen minutes in any direction from the nearest help if somebody attacks her. And D; I found it first, so it's mine." Then he stuck his tongue out at them.

"Real mature there Xan," Buffy sarcastically remarked.

"And what about me hanging onto it?" Cordelia asked her boyfriend. "Not that I want to, I'm just curious."

"Same reasons, except you're twenty minutes away from the nearest help, and that's in your car," he took a jibe at her.

"Oh, OK then," she shrugged it off.

"Besides," Xander said to the rest of the gang, "what do we really know about this thing anyway?" holding up the card. "It could be perfectly harmless unless there's some kind of ritual done with it for all we know right now."

"Hello," Cordelia scoffed, "It's a calling card. You stick it in a phone and then have to answer some kind of question and answer thing. That's how they work. I should know, I've got like twenty."

"But the people who get involved with Psyren disappear!" Willow protested. "They're calling it 'spirited away' but that's still disappearing!"

"Better to hang onto it rather than let whatever vampires or demons get their hands on it," Buffy finally said. "Xander's right about places to hide it anyway. Any time I hide something at my house, I get attacked before the weekend. Same with Angel, and no offense Faith, but I wouldn't trust something like this in your motel even if there were no demons or vampires left on the planet."

"None taken," Faith shrugged it off. Besides, the blond was right, her motel was in a rough part of the neighborhood, and more dark elements than vamps and demons hung around there.

"Very well," Giles sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Xander, I'll trust this to you then, and please don't try and use it. We still have extremely limited information regarding this. I'll contact Elmore, see what she has to say. Oh, uh, Buffy, if you wouldn't mind staying for a bit, there's something I need to discuss with you. Faith, I'll see you tomorrow for training?"

"Sure thing G," the Boston Slayer waved and was gone before Angel was. Quite a feat considering how quickly the vampire moved.

Meeting over, the other teens quickly left, Xander pocketing the card on his way out, and given how late it was, they decided to just go home, as it was too late to tempt going to the Bronze. Cordelia offered a ride to all of them, but Xander begged off, saying he had to get some homework he left in his locker and he was only a few minutes walk from his home. Oz had left his van with the band that evening, so he and Willow both took the brunette debutant up on her offer.

The minute Xander was sure he was alone and on his own, he made for the Commons Area of the school, and more specifically the new digital payphone that was put in there. One that just so happened to include a slot for phone cards.

Making sure he was alone, and being double-sure by triple-checking all the shadows for Angel, he took out the Psyren card and put it in the slot. He might have hesitated for a moment or two, but that was all. He couldn't really explain _why_ he was doing this. It would be one thing if he knew somebody that was already caught up in Psyren and he had to go save them or something. It would be a completely different thing if it was just about the money. Hey, five million dollars was _Five Million Dollars_!

But as he put the card in the slot and picked up the receiver, _knowing_ that he was probably doing something insanely stupid, he couldn't deny that there was _something_ about the whole thing that put him on edge. Looking back, he would say that when he first found out about Buffy and vampires and demons and the Hellmouth that even before the whole deal with Willow and Jesse being taken by vampires, his curiosity and fascination with Buffy would eventually have driven him into the world he was now so familiar with.

What he was doing now was more than just plain curiosity however. Xander wasn't one to put much faith in fate or destiny, especially when he and Buffy tended to tie for title of being "Fate's Bitch" what with him getting struck down with every demonic effect aside from vampirism and usually in a highly embarrassing manner at the same time. Now though, what he was doing was more 'preventative planning' on his part.

This whole deal with Psyren and the mysterious Nemesis Q and the vampire having the card, it spoke of bad mojo on the horizon. People being spirited away? Reward money for _information_ on Psyren instead of just the cards or Nemesis Q himself? The whole urban legend and the secrecy and silence behind it? He was uncomfortably reminded of the whole deal with Buffy and Faith being Vampire Slayers and the secrecy and silence behind the existence of demons and vampires and magic and Hellmouths and everything!

This Psyren card was Xander's new "Buffy"and he knew it too.

Eventually, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even a year from now, but eventually something would happen and Buffy or Giles would be forced to say that they needed to use the Psyren card. And then it would be too late and they'd be trapped by whatever world Psyren lead them to. Even if it was a world they never wanted to be a part of. The possibility also existed that there were demons out there that really wanted the card and somehow he knew that if he used the card first, then it would be useless in their hands. Can't very well hand over something completely useless now can they?

With all that in mind, Xander's decision made and he put the card fully in the slot of the public phone.

The card went in automatically. He didn't even have to slide it in or out, just held it up to the slot, and it was like it was sucked in by the phone. A few seconds later, the phone dialed itself and Xander heard an automated female voice speaking.

"Greetings! Your World is now Connected!" the voice said, hesitating on the multi-syllable words, like English was a second, or even fifth language for her. "You've reached the Immigration Offices of Psyren. We will now commence the Immigration Examination. Please answer the following questions. Each question has two choices. If your answer is yes, please press one. If your answer is no, please press two."

Xander was a bit stunned, yet disappointed at the same time. Somehow he had expected... more. More than a phone survey in any case! Still, in for a penny as the saying goes.

"Question 1. Are you an American citizen older than 12? Dial Yes or No."

Xander hesitated, then hit the number one on the keypad.

"Question 2. Are you worried about the fate of the world? Dial Yes or No."

Considering what he did with his free time, Xander hit the one again.

"Question 3. Have you ever suffered a brain injury or been diagnosed with a serious illness? Dial Yes or No."

Again, Xander hesitated, though this time it was because he wasn't sure how to answer the question. He'd certainly taken his share of hits to the head, though thankfully not as many as Giles had, but he'd never been diagnosed with either a real medical brain injury or a real medically serious illness. He hit the two.

"Question 4. Do you have chronic difficulty breathing, or have you ever felt your planet's atmosphere is difficult to breathe in? Dial Yes or No."

Frowning at the somewhat odd question, and because he'd never had asthma, he hit the two again.

"Question 5. Have you ever dreamed of talking sheep? Dial Yes or No."

He, unfortunately, had to hit the one for that question.

"Question 6. Do you believe there's life in outer space? Dial Yes or No."

The questions went on in this fashion for a little longer, typical SciFi Geek type questions or just general survey to find what demographic he fit into. Until he got into the teen-digits that is.

"Question 18. You prefer a mountain of Twinkees over a suburb surrounded by forest. Dial Yes or No."

Then it got _really_ freaky when he got past question twenty.

"Question 24. You have close friends. Dial Yes or No."

"Question 30. Have you ever killed a living thing larger than a human? Dial Yes or No."

"Question 45. Something you have done changed the world. Dial Yes or No."

Finally, it was getting to be a bit too much and Xander was this close to hanging up the phone, no matter what the consequences may or may not be. To be quite honest, he was on the verge of falling asleep where he stood by this point. At least after a while she stopped reminding him to dial yes or no.

"Question 60. You feel unsatisfied with High School life." One. Everybody was unsatisfied with High School. That's why it was High School!

"Question 61. You don't think anything of the future." Two. Not unless it involved a prophecy of some kind, other than that, not really.

"Question 62. You don't like it when your friends push you away." One—wait a second!

"What kind of question is that?" Xander asked the phone aloud. That kind of question, while not altogether odd, kind of struck close to home for him. He answered it anyway.

"Question 63. Your superhero best friend is trying to protect you by keeping you out of the way. And you find it extremely annoying." Xander nearly dropped the phone and bolted right then and there. He answered the question instead.

"Question 64. You have feelings for your childhood friend. And you're considering cheating on your girlfriend with her." He froze. He had what now?!

The phone was silent, still waiting for his answer, but he didn't know what to do. Finally, having a quick heavy knock down drag out mental wrestling match over the answer in his head, he decided that he loved Cordelia more than he wanted to discover what feelings he may or may not have for Willow, and hit the two.

"Question 65. Your parents are drunken losers that couldn't care less if you disappeared entirely."

Finally, an easy question. Though still disturbing on how this lady had that kind of information about him. Then again, this was the Hellmouth. After vampires, demons, witches, invisible girls, Frankenstein-wannabes and werewolves, a psychic phone survey was par for the course as far as he was concerned. One.

"Question 66. Would you like to go to Psyren?"

Xander had actually been waiting for this question for some time now. He immediately hit the two. Six times. Maybe ten. He couldn't be sure but at least the damn thing was over now. With a sigh, he pulled the card out of the phone and started to walk away, figuring he'd just wasted the only lead they had on figuring out this whole Psyren deal, or at least what vampires had to do with it. He seriously doubted that _any_ vampire would willingly subject themselves to this kind of experience for any length of time, immortal creatures of the night or not!

Behind him, barely hearing it at first, but just loud enough that he stopped in his tracks, he heard the woman's voice call over the cradled receiver, "Examination Complete. We will contact you regarding the results..." He froze when he heard that, unable to move, and feeling like he'd just been told that Angelus, Spike Drusilla, the Master and the Hellmouth Demon were all standing behind him and if he turned around they would kill him in an instant. Otherwise, he had an undefined amount of time before they _did_ kill him.

Xander ran home that night and hid shivering beneath his covers until dawn.

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Sunnydale High School Library_

_One Week Later_

After that night, the others all forgot about the card. Well, not really forgot, but they didn't talk about it and when Giles called his friend in Japan he apparently didn't find out anything new about Psyren, or if he did he didn't bother telling them about it. Willow spent a few more hours on the computer searching just for Psyren, but all she found were the same conspiracy and urban legend websites she'd already visited. Xander, however, certainly did not forget about it.

Mostly he was still privately freaking out over the whole psychic survey thing more than anything else. Plus that last message, the one about how they'll contact him about the results? Hopefully since he hit No to the final question, they wouldn't 'spirit him away' or anything like that, but he had to be honest with himself. This _was_ the Hellmouth for crying out loud!

Though it still bothered him and caused him to worry, Xander was very careful about hiding that worry from the others. Willow and Cordelia especially, as those two meant the most to him and were the most likely to find out in the first place. He also wasn't looking forward to the lectures he'd undoubtedly receive upon informing everyone what he'd done with the card.

Unfortunately, hiding things from Buffy had gotten easier than it used to be. He'd had a lot of practice since she'd come back from running away. After spending a few months hiding his very raw and real anger at her abandoning them, hiding his worry and thoughts over the whole Psyren card deal was easy as cake. Giles and Oz were unsurprisingly the easiest to hide things from, simply from the fact that he rarely saw them outside of Scooby meetings, and even while there unless there was some Hellmouth crisis going on, they didn't exactly do a lot of talking or sharing of secrets. Speaking of Scooby meetings, there was supposed to be one tonight, a few hours after school let out.

Today, Xander had come to school and just went through the motions, hiding his worry, and trying to avoid thinking about the whole Psyren thing too much. He'd woken up, went off to school, met up with Willow and Buffy in the morning for their shared classes, hooked up with Cordelia right before Lunch, spent an hour sleeping during "Study Hall" and enjoyed the laziness of the afternoon classes where he could just hang with his friends, all of which managed to have the same class at the end of the day.

After school was "officially" over, Cordelia had cheerleading practice, Oz was going to practice with the band at the Bronze (closed until sundown generally), Willow went with him, and Buffy and Giles had "training" also known as the afternoon shift of Slayer workouts. Thanks to Giles having the lonely occupation of High School Librarian at a school where nobody except the minority of geeks even bothered learning how to read books, he pretty much had the place to the run of himself. So Faith, also a Slayer, came in about eight or nine in the morning and worked with Giles on bettering her skills as a demon killer, and then Buffy came in the afternoon for the same while Faith went back to her motel to sleep until sunset.

Having nothing to do himself, and a girlfriend-enforced restraining order against watching the cheerleaders practice anymore, he ambled towards the Library, maybe sort of hoping to get an eyeful of Slayers In Spandex. Sadly, much to his disappointment, today seemed to have Giles giving Buffy some training _outside_ of the Library, as nobody was there when he came by.

He hung around, just sitting at the table for about three minutes before boredom and teenage anxiety got to him and he was looking in the office, the stacks, even rifling the shelves and papers all over the place, hoping to find some clue as to where Buffy and Giles had gotten to. He didn't really find anything.

About fifteen minutes after he'd first arrived and already searched the whole place, he heard the phone ring. Except the ring tone was not anything like what the Library phone typically sounded like!

If anything, as he heard it ring a few more times, it sounded like the kind of ring tone you'd hear from a phone booth on TV, the one that sounds like actual bells and stuff. Xander looked around confused for a minute, hoping that Giles would pop up out of somewhere to answer the phone. Hey, he was a student here, not exactly someone important enough to answer the phone. Particularly not if it was important.

Then things got really weird. The ringing was getting louder. And more than that, it felt like it was in his head! He walked over to the phone, and while it did get louder still, it was reverberating inside his skull more than anything else. What's more, this particular phone had a light display showing when there was an incoming call, or a call period. The lights were all off.

Gulping, despite himself, Xander reached out and lifted the receiver off the cradle. It rung one more time, forcing Xander to glance around, see if there was anybody else here, or even another phone. There was no one. Leaning closer, Xander put his ear next to the receiver and whispered, "Hel—"

_Psyren_

_Unknown Location_

_Unknown Time_

"—lo?" Xander whispered, only somewhere between beginning his whispered greeting and finishing it, he was somehow taken from the empty Sunnydale High School Library holding the phone there, and placed in the _exact_ same pose and stance in the middle of a post-apocalyptic waste zone.

Except it wasn't just any waste zone. As he slowly looked around and took in the sudden scenic change, he came across a fallen road sign. The green was faded and the metal mostly rust, but the words printed on it were still very clear. It also made Xander feel like the time he'd staked his first vampire. A vampire that just so happened to be his childhood best friend. It didn't feel good, needless to say.

The sign said; "Welcome To Sunnydale, CA."

Ironically, the spot on the sign where the population was usually posted and had numbers upwards of a thousand, the metal and paint were badly damaged so it looked like it had been scratched out on purpose. For all the boy knew at the time, it had been.

After absorbing the fact that he now stood on an Apocalyptic Sunnydale, Xander looked up and was surprised to find the sky almost black with cloud cover. Only these weren't normal clouds. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on with them, but he could feel it in his marrow that they were not normal. The sunlight barely peeked through in places and was completely blocked in the rest.

Staying quiet for the moment, he slowly turned on the spot, taking in everything that he saw while his mind processed and tried to figure out what the hellmouth had just happened here! Everything within sight was either destroyed, decayed, or barren and not necessarily in that order. Instead of ground or solid earth, it was like the desert had moved into town, but it was a dark, ugly ashy sort of sand, rather than the healthy yellow-brown earth grains he was used to. Buildings, or what was left of them, were collapsed and crumbling in on themselves. All of them showed the same sort of damage however. Like there was some kind of blast or explosion, and they all fell _away_ from that direction. Looking, he saw exactly what he feared and had prayed continuously since sophomore year to _never_ see!

In the distance, a horrid red glow emerged from the earth, shining upwards onto the strange black clouds. Around that red light, figures, creatures flew and lurked. A couple just floated languidly around it, like fishes in a pond. Or sharks in the ocean.

The one thing that he really couldn't help but notice, however, was a certain eight-headed demon, with a _lot_ of tentacle like appendages, as big as anything Xander had ever seen in his life, bigger even. It stood at the center of that red light, reaching a good ten stories into the sky and was over three times that in width. Xander recognized that demon. He had nightmares about it.

Giles had claimed it did have a name, but the teen had never bothered to remember it. He only knew it by what he and his friends called it, only in whispers and rarely if ever. The Hellmouth Demon.

The Hellmouth had been opened.

Hell on Earth indeed.

Against his better judgment, and plain common sense, Xander's body immediately started running as fast as he could move it, _towards_ the Hellmouth and that demon. In his passing a few things moved or skirted around him, but he ignored them. One or two gave a brief chase, but he didn't even bother to pause, running the whole way, even as his lungs started to burn up and his muscles began to cramp up on him, he pushed through the pain and kept running.

He had no clue what had happened to him, but he knew only one thing in that moment. The Hellmouth was directly beneath the Library. The Library where his friends were supposed to be. He had to find his friends.

Maybe a half hour of running later, Xander reached downtown, near the school. Amazingly, the center of Sunnydale wasn't as bad as the outskirts. At least there were still some buildings intact. Not exactly standing, but they were intact and there was potential for shelters among them. The streets too seemed to have survived whatever happened, though they were cracked and badly damaged, at least he was no longer running through that ashy sand.

Finally, he got to where the school lie.

Amazingly, despite the giant tentacle demon right next door, the school itself was largely intact. Come to think of it, Xander observed as he crept closer having slowed down when his objective was in sight, it looked like the school had actually been blasted up into the air, stable on whatever earth lay between it and the actual Hellmouth, and then crashed right next to where it had once rested.

Taking a minute to catch his breath, Xander slowly jogged up to the crumbling building and entered through the broken main entrance. He almost immediately came back out, seeing the hallways and doors caved in from whatever had happened. Working from the outside, he slowly made his way around to the Library's rear entrance, and amazingly found it all still intact. Aside from a few broken windows, nothing looked caved in or broken in that area!

The door, unfortunately, was locked, but picking up a rusted piece of pipe, he quickly remedied that and once he was inside, used the same pipe to barricade the door back into place. Once security was assured, he took a deep breath and slowly turned around to face what he had just left. He blinked in surprise.

Everything was... almost exactly the same as he'd left it. Books were still on the shelves, which while messy, were dust-free, and the floor swept and unbroken. Stepping slowly and carefully, afraid this was some kind of trick or trap, he stepped out of the stacks and into the main Library. Here, at least, signs of the Apocalypse outside were seen.

Not counting the window-front view of the giant demon next door, the table was littered with open demon texts and magic tomes, the chalkboard that Giles only ever brought out for big Apocalyptic situations was out and filled with references and things that were hopefully relevant to the situation. But other than the signs of research being done, the Library was in the same pristine condition he'd left it in not an hour ago!

"What... what is going on here?" Xander's voice croaked, from emotion, from physical strain, even from thirst given how far he'd run and how much he was sweating now.

A noise drew his attention to the office. The sound of someone falling over and dropping something. Both sounds he knew well, from personal experience. And then the worst possible thing happened to Xander.

Rupert Giles stumbled out of the office, only this was not the Giles Xander had seen last.

"Giles?" Xander called, unable to believe his eyes. The man standing before him was at least in his late sixties, if not early eighties. His hair was fully gray, grown out past his shoulders and all greasy and oily, like it had never been washed, ever. He also had a full beard, just as long as his hair and just as gray and unwashed. The man's clothes were beaten and worn, but Xander could never mistake that tweed for anything other than the same jacket suit only Giles would wear. The most disturbing thing however was the man's eyes.

Normally when Xander looked into those blue eyes, he saw confidence, wisdom, and usually annoyance when directed at him. Now, however, he saw something he couldn't recognize. There was no trace of that usual confidence and wisdom he was so used to seeing, none at all in fact. And the annoyance directed at him, which would have been a relief after all this, was replaced by something Xander hadn't expected. Surprise, suspicion, relief and joy all mixed together, alongside that other unidentifiable quantity.

"Who-who-who's there?" the man stuttered, then pulled up a single lens held on a string around his neck. All that was left of his spectacles. "X-x-x-xan... Xander?" he croaked out after a few seconds of looking at him.

"Giles, what... what happened?" the teen gasped as he stepped down from the stacks.

"I-I-I... is it really you, Xander? Are you... are you really here? You look... you look the same," Giles whispered, furiously rubbing at his remaining lens, then looking through it again, only to repeat the process.

"It's me G-man, really," Xander told him, growing concerned. "What happened?"

"G-man..." Giles stared at him, tears forming in the old man's eyes, and he started to laugh. Or cry. Or maybe both? "Only... only you ever called me by that infernal nickname. Hahah! Not even my hallucinations ever got that right. Stupid boy! Where have you been?!"

Xander jumped back, frightened and wondering what had happened that made Giles this angry at him. That lasted the few seconds until Giles continued speaking.

Turning fully to his left, Giles proceeded to berate the empty air. "I told you! I told you that you were doing it all wrong! You never once called me G-man, so that's why you could never fool me! I never liked you, you know! Never could organize my books properly. Don't patronize me! It's not any kind of special filing system, it's the alphabet! I don't care if some of the books are written in demonic languages, they can still be alphabetized, you wanker! At least Buffy and Willow were never so bad as you!"

"Giles!" Xander shouted at the man, his fear much more realized now. "What happened? Where are Buffy and Willow?"

"Xan-Xander?" the old man turned and looked at the teen as though seeing him for the first time. "Is-is that really you? Are-are-are you really here?"

Xander stepped back, his eyes wide and his hands reaching for the sky. He didn't want to believe it, but it was the only explanation, the only reason for what he saw in Giles that he couldn't identify before.

Rupert Giles was crazy. Whatever had happened, whatever it was, it had driven Giles completely insane.

"Giles?" Xander spoke quietly, trying to keep from panicking, and startling a crazy man was never a good idea anyway. "I need you to focus Giles. Please, tell me what happened? I... I just answered the phone and the next thing I know, I'm on the outskirts of town and its literally Hell on Earth! Please, Giles... what happened? Where are Buffy and Willow?"

"Xander?" Giles stared closely at him, ignoring the spectacle lens for the moment.

Slowly, tentatively, as though he were afraid it was Xander that was going to startle and disappear, he reached out and grasped the teen by the shoulders. The moment he actually touched him though, the old man broke down in tears and before the dark-haired youth knew it, he had his arms full of a weeping senior citizen.

It took a while to calm Giles down, but he finally managed to get the silver-haired Watcher into a chair and ready to talk. It was all Xander could do not to give into his own panic, but keeping Giles calm and focused helped him in suppressing it, for the moment, but his concern for his friends was mounting by the second. He had a million questions, but Giles was still very fragile and he knew from handling his family when they got drunk that he couldn't demand any answers right away. He'd have to go at Giles pace.

The good news, at least, was that for the moment the Library was secure. After all, they hadn't been attacked in the past half hour and however long before then when it had just been Giles alone, and the very open and active Hellmouth was _literally_ right next door, so they were probably OK, at least for the moment.

"Giles, Giles!" Xander called, getting Giles' attention focused on him. "I need you to focus here G-man! That's it. Now I need you to tell me what happened. Please. I need to know. Where are Buffy and Willow? What happened here? G-man?"

"Xander... Xander... Xander..." Giles was smiling at him and kept clapping him on the shoulder. Finally, he seemed to register the question and nodded. He cleared his throat and straightened in his chair, obviously trying to gather his thoughts, however out there they may be.

"Yes. What happened. I know what happened, and I should tell you, but..." Giles suddenly teared up, and almost started weeping again as he blubbered, "...but it's so sad."

"Giles? G-man?" Xander cried out, now _very_ worried about his friends. What the hell happened?

"You, you disappeared!" Giles sobbed. "Spirited Away, Willow kept calling it. She wouldn't let go that Psyren and Nemesis something had taken you. Oh god, if only we had known!" He dissolved into sobs after that. Xander leaned back, very confused and frightened.

"G-man! Know what? What if we'd known _what_?" he pressed. "C'mon, G-man, talk to me!"

"Yes, of course, it's just... I've have no one to talk to for so long," Giles confessed to him. He composed himself as much as possible and continued where he'd left off.

"This, _this_ is Psyren!" he waved and gestured about wildly. Xander didn't need to have a degree in crazy person talk to know what he meant.

"This...? The Library? Please tell me you mean the Library, Giles," the dark-haired teen begged him.

Unfortunately, Crazy-Giles decided to invoke some of his old Watcher-attitude and merely shook his head no. He made the same gestures over and over again, stressing the view outside the windows. Xander sighed and groaned, covering his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose as he processed this new information.

"The, the whole world? The whole world going to hell is what Psyren is all about?" he confirmed.

Giles rapidly shook his head, his silver mane flying in all directions. "No, no, no, that's not it. The whole world _becomes_ Psyren! That's what Psyren is. It wasn't an is, not then. Now it is, but then it wasn't yet. It would be, but it wasn't yet. You see?" Giles then smiled at him like a toddler telling his parents about his day.

Xander groaned and covered his face again. Ironically, or maybe unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, he actually did understand what Giles was trying to say. Whether that said he was crazy too, or he was just really good at interpreting babble-talk after growing up with Willow, who knew? The point was, he figured out what had happened to him, and maybe the whole world too. He was in the future. A future in which the Hellmouth opened up and created a hell on earth that called itself Psyren.

What the point of it all was, dragging innocent people here from the past, or the present, whichever, he couldn't begin to fathom. And why use the whole phone card deal for that matter? He had a million more questions and no way to answer them. He doubted that Giles would have the answers to everything, but Xander still had some questions that hopefully the old Watcher _could_ answer for him.

"OK, Giles, I need you to answer a very important question for me, OK?" the old man nodded, his silvery mane shaking wildly. "What year is it?"

He almost groaned out loud when he saw the disheartened look on Giles face after he asked his question.

"I, I, I don't know, I'm sorry," the old man looked shamefaced down at the floor. "My, my calendar broke," he pointed towards the office, where Xander could see from here just how cluttered and messy it was. On the wall, he could just make out the spot where the calendar used to hang, all the pages torn off of it.

"That's OK, Giles," he patted his former mentor on the back comfortingly. "All right, let's go back to the original question. What happened? I get that I'm in Psyren, and that the world became Psyren, but what happened on the go-between? How did the world _become_ Psyren?"

"I, I, I," Giles stuttered, his eyes squished up in thought. "I'm trying to remember, but... it's so hard."

"It's OK G-man, it's OK," Xander sighed, trying not to growl in frustration. "What... what happened to Buffy and Willow? Cordelia? Oz? Faith? Hell, Angel for that matter?"

Giles savagely shook his head. "No! No, no, no, no, no, no! I don't want to remember that! NO!"

"Giles! G-man, it's OK, it's OK, really, it's OK!" Xander scrambled to keep the man calm and focused.

Giles just shook his head, not saying anything else. That alone was answer enough.

"They, they're dead I guess," he finally said out loud.

The silver-maned old timer looked guiltily up at him, then nodded his head once before dissolving into quiet tears. For a time, they just sat their in companionable silence, neither one knew what to say.

Finally, Xander decided that whatever was going on, he couldn't just sit back and accept it, he had to do something, something to change this! They read prophecies by the hundreds every time Buffy came across a new unknown demon. Couldn't visiting the future and going back to the past be considered a form of prophecy? He had to believe that it was, because that meant he had a chance of getting back. He had to hang onto that.

"Giles, I need you to focus for me, OK?" he spoke to the older man.

"Hm?" Giles looked up, and after a few more rounds of their initial conversation, Xander finally got him to come around and focus on what he needed.

"G-man, you remember that Psyren card we found one night on patrol? We found it about a week before I... before I disappeared. Remember it?" Seeing it when the old man's eyes lit up with remembrance, he continued without waiting for a response. "This is that card," he held up the Psyren card, "Now I need to know if you ever found out anything about it that can help me out here. I need to get back to the past, Giles. Willow said that there were people that disappeared and then came back after being spirited away to Psyren. I have to believe that I can get back! Giles, you've got to help me."

"Xander... Xander you, you never came back," Giles sobbed.

"I'm going to change that," Xander stated, the conviction in his voice startling the old man a bit.

"You... yes, yes, yes you could. You could, you can save them. They only died because you weren't here, you see," Giles began to get excited, jumping out of his chair and pacing about. "Willow started using magic, trying to find you and bring you back, but she went dark and killed herself. She killed Oz and many other people too, but if you were here, yes, yes, yes if you were here she wouldn't be looking for you with magic and wouldn't kill people! And Buffy, she, she, she tried to save us all, but after you were spirited away, she just lost all heart. She wasn't in herself, like she was just an empty shell after you left. Cordelia... Cordelia was turned the week after you disappeared and Buffy had to kill her. But if you're here, if we can get you _there_, then you can stop her from being attacked and that means that... YES!"

Suddenly he raced back into the office and pulled out a bunch of loosely bound papers, sorting through them in a way only known to the crazy old man. After less than a minute of looking at all of the papers in turn, he raced back out to the Library and started dragging Xander towards the exit/entrance.

"Giles? G-man? Giles! What is it? What's the plan, G-man?" he asked, half hoping he had reason to be excited.

"You're not the first one that I've seen here. I've... I've tried to help people, but they all keep dying," the old man sadly admitted, while still dragging him out the door. "Some are survivors, like me. But not many, no, not any at all now... But others! Yes, others, from then, from when, where you are from! Others! Yes! They wander around the town. The demons aren't interested in eating humans anymore, not enough of us. I don't think they eat anymore come to think of it... But the others! Humans, ordinary, dressed, people, humans! They come and they wander and I follow and try to help, but some don't want my help. Others... many, die."

"Giles, slow down, I'm having trouble following you. Well, not that much, and I meant I'm trying to understand what you're saying, but not making much with the sense G-man," Xander stated. They were outside now, and thankfully moving away from the school and away from the open Hellmouth. He wasn't sure where Giles was taking him, but he trusted the old man, even crazy, enough to follow him, for now.

"Drifters!" Giles screamed at him, then looked around and whispered the rest. "They call themselves Psyren Drifters. They're playing a game. They have the card. Just like you do Xander. They explained the game to me, when I tried to help. I didn't understand, but I did try to help."

"I believe you Giles," Xander smiled at him. "Thanks for helping me. Now, where are we going?"

"Yes, yes, yes, help, I'm helping you, so you'll help us. So you'll save them. You'll save them, Xander?" the crazy old man looked back at him hopefully.

Xander just stared at him, letting his conviction speak for him. Giles stared for a second, then nodded firmly and pulled Xander on even faster. It wasn't long before he recognized the same path he'd taken when running to the Library earlier. "Giles? Why are we going back the way I came?"

"Because," Giles whisper-shouted at him, "because of the phone! The phone is near where you first appear. It's always near. They never explained how near, I don't think they knew themselves, but they always said there are two phones, and you're always near the first one wherever it is you appear. Then there's the other phone, the goal phone, the Goal! You have to start at the first phone, the Start, and then from there go to the Goal! That's where we're going, to the first phone. If we get you to the Goal, you'll be sucked into the phone and then you go back, yes, that's what happens."

Xander blinked, not sure, but he kind of followed that.

Apparently, he couldn't be sure, but apparently there had been others wandering through Sunnydale that Crazy-Giles had come across at some point, and they were caught up in the whole Psyren conspiracy thing. Perhaps they'd been 'spirited away' to this place just like him. They'd also known how to play the game, so to speak, and when Giles found them, they'd told him some things while hoping he could help lead them to these phones he was talking about. He just hoped that there was still enough 'Giles' underneath all that crazy that they weren't going to be running towards their deaths in his enthusiasm to help.

Another half hour of jogging and stumbling around later, they arrived at the very spot that Xander had appeared at, his foot prints appearing from nowhere in the middle of the ashy sand. They both took a moment to appreciate that phenomenon, but Giles was not to be distracted, searching the area meticulously for a 'Start' phone. Xander let him look, watching on half-amused as the crazy old man was looking under rocks and pieces of debris that were smaller than his hand just as often as the boulder-sized pieces. The teen, however, just looked straight ahead and stared.

There, roughly twenty or thirty feet at most, _directly_ behind where he'd first appeared, was a highway-side phone booth, standing and in an overall whole condition. It wasn't exactly pristine, but it wasn't so much scrap on the ground, and that was saying something.

"Giles," Xander called, then pointed when he had the crazy coot's attention.

"Oh, there it is!" Giles pointed, bouncing on his feet.

"Yeah, there it is," he nodded back and slowly walked over to the phone booth, Giles following behind.

"So," he said to his crazy companion once he was standing in the phone booth before the, miraculously intact, digital telephone, "what happens now?"

Almost as if in reply, the phone actually began to ring. The two men, of course, nearly jumped out of their skins, and Xander still felt like sloughing off when the phone continued to ring. Finally, having more to do with Giles' urging than his own courage, Xander picked up the phone and put it to his ear.

*FLASH!*

_**Those Seeking Psyren Shall Taste Power and Despair!!**_

'_What the—!_' Xander leapt back from the phone booth, feeling a presence, in his mind, speaking.

_**Those Seeking Psyren Shall Taste Power and Despair!!**_

_**Those Who Reach Psyren Shall Be Granted the World!!**_

_**There Is Only One Exit In This Game.**_

Xander wasn't sure what was going on, but suddenly he felt like his head was wrapped up in some kind of dream or vision or something, while his body was still standing there outside the phone booth while this voice talked at him. Then the dream changed and he saw something in his mind. Like a doorway that was light years away, but approaching at warp speed or something.

_**Those Seeking Psyren... Those Searching For The Exit From This World... Find the Gate!!**_

Suddenly the door was visually right in front of him, and he saw another phone, this one just inside a gas station or some kind of convenience store. Then the next thing he knew, he was back in his body and the dream was over. It was just him and Giles standing outside the phone booth, nobody talking and no doors of light either. Giles, oddly, didn't seem too affected by it, or maybe he hadn't seen and heard what Xander had.

"What... what just happened?" the teen asked out loud.

"You heard the voice?" Giles said. "Good. They always started looking for the Goal after they heard the voice. There was something else though..."

"Gate," Xander said.

"Hm?" the crazy old coot looked back up at him.

"The... voice, that cra—uh, that lady's voice from the phone survey, it was her voice. Said if I wanted to get home, I have to find the gate. Then I saw picture of it. Hey, uh, Giles, I don't suppose you know if there are any gas stations still standing around here somewhere, are there?"

Giles, however, was shaking his head and muttering to himself. It sounded like, "There was something else, I know there was more, something more, something else, they did something else more..."

"Giles? G-man!" Xander called. "You trying to remember something?"

"Ah!" the old man exclaimed. "Of course! Yes, that's it. Xander, on the, the, the phone there. Hit the memory button. Please, just do it," he added when the teen shot him a look.

Reluctantly, and more to humor the crazy old man than anything else, Xander looked at the available buttons on the digital phone and then hit the button labeled 'MEM' and waited. Instantly, on the digital screen, a map popped up. Xander blinked, shot Giles a look, smiled, then turned back to the map. "Way to go G-man!"

Near as he could tell, it was a very localized map. Didn't even go that far into town and started at the very border of the town, where the phone booth itself was. As a matter of fact, judging from the display, he saw two small icons on the map that drew his attention. One was at the bottom labeled with an S and had a small phone attached to the letter. Then, in the upper right corner of the screen was another icon, this one looked like some curved J or something, but really it looked more like a door with a key in it. The Gate, he realized.

Following the map and the displayed directions, he looked back towards Sunnydale and the direction he'd have to walk. Taking a deep breath, he made sure to memorize the map as much as possible, and then turned to Giles and without a word the two of them started walking.

Five minutes later, they were running as fast as they could.

"I knew my luck couldn't hold out!" Xander screamed as the two of them tried to outrace the demon that was chasing them down the street. It wasn't a breed that Xander recognized, but then he usually relied on Giles for that sort of information, and the man had just taken one look at the behemoth and started running. Surprisingly for an old guy, Giles was pretty spry.

"Xander...!" Giles gasped, as they continued running, dodging obstacles and avoiding their chaser. "There's... more I... have to tell you... that I should tell you... but..."

"Run now, talk later!" Xander shouted at him. "I thought all the demons didn't chase humans anymore!"

"I said _MOST_, not all, you insufferable idiot!" Giles shouted back. "Why am I hallucinating again?"

"Giles? _NOT Hallucinating _here!"

"Oh, well then, I suppose I'd better do something about that creature then, shan't I?" Giles commented.

Xander looked at him like he was crazy, which he was, but even crazy people don't talk about taking out demons like it's just a mild inconvenience! Well, unless they happen to be just as insanely powerful as they are insane... uh-oh.

Giles stopped in his tracks and turned to face the demon charging right for them. It could best be described as some kind of white bull, except that it was a lizard with a tail and claws instead of hooves, and the white part came from the fact that it was covered in the same ashy sand as the rest of the place. The thing had a roar like something out of a Jurassic Park movie, and it's front limbs were more like talons than feet or arms.

Xander skidded to a halt, and it was all he could do just to turn around. He was a heartbeat from running in and tackling Giles to the ground before dragging him onward, but it was already too late. He'd never make it in time. All Xander could do was watch as Giles got himself killed for him, probably trying to buy him time to run and... hold the phone.

Giles raised one of his withered hands up in front of him, as though calling for the monster to stop, while his long silver gray hair and beard waved in the dead wind of the wasteland. The seriously weird part of it though? The thing actually _stopped_!

More than that, it skidded on the sand, as though it weren't just trying to stop, it was trying to start running away in a whole other direction. Away from Giles! _Giles_!

The reason why soon became obvious to the teen as Giles raised his second hand and opened his fingers wide, like he was about to catch something. A second later, the demon cried out in horrible, gut-wrenching pain and tears in it's ash-covered flesh began to appear and tear away from it. It soon became more than that as the tears and gashes were just the side-effect as piece-by-piece, the demon was torn apart, or better descriptor _dissolved_ and all the pieces of dust or whatever it became flew into Giles' outstretched hands like a reverse whirlwind effect.

When it was over, Giles was standing there, calm and crazy as ever, with what was left of the demon, bare and bleached bones, in front of him. Xander gulped when the crazy old watcher turned and started walking back towards him.

"Uh, Giles? G-man, how..." Xander gulped and then finished his question as he resumed following Giles, "How'd you do that? Was... was that magic? Were you using dark magic?"

"Hm?" Giles looked at him, confused but not angry. "Oh, that. Yes, well, I'm afraid you'll discover that in about another three or four hours. It only takes six hours to become affected, and it doesn't take much to be affected I've discovered. Not to worry, not to worry my boy. You'll be fine. Just... remind me to help you out when you get back. I won't know any of this of course, not if we're right about you being sent back."

"Giles, please, for the love of Twinkees! Start making sense!" Xander exclaimed.

"Ah, here we are," Giles pointed just up ahead and Xander turned and stared.

Sure enough, an old worn down, but still standing gas station. Looked like something out of the eighties, but Xander could see from where he stood that there was definitely a phone just inside. He could see it through the broken front window. Deciding to get the answers to his questions in relative safety, Xander grabbed the old man by the arm and dragged him inside.

Once the door was shut, and Xander had quickly looked through all of the rooms available in the small building to confirm they were truly alone, he turned and sat the old man down and started asking questions.

"All right Giles," he began, "Start talking. You may be crazy, and you've certainly got good enough reasons to be, but I've got to believe that my friend, a man I trust and respect is still in there somewhere. You're a Watcher, the stiff-upper-lip, tweed-wearing, tea-time, smart guy with all the info type person. So give me something I can use to stop this from happening. Please!"

"Of course Xander," Giles said, smiling and patted the boy on the knee. "I'll do all I can. I know how much is riding on you getting back to stop Buffy and Willow from... well from..."

Xander cut him off there with a wave of his hand. "We'll get to that. You said that what drove them over the edge was me disappearing. I go back, that stops them from dying right there. But what about the rest of it? How did you kill that thing out there? What was it anyway? How did the Hellmouth open up and what happened to the whole world for that matter? Just because Buffy was off her game was no reason for the rest of this to have happened!"

"No, no you're right," Giles nodded stiffly. "Buffy couldn't have stopped the rest of it if she'd tried. There was... there was so much going on. Too much. We couldn't... You have to go back Xander, it's the only way, and it's better if you get home and stay in bed as soon as you do. That headache was a nightmare, and the nosebleed certainly didn't help matters."

"Nosebleed?!" Xander shot to his feet, checking his nose as he did. Thankfully it came back dry and not-red. "Giles, you'd better start making with the sense here! What nosebleed? What headache? What are you talking about?"

"Hm, I didn't explain already? How silly of me," the silver-maned Englishman chided himself.

"It's the air, you see," he pointed to the ceiling and then all around. "Something in the air, it came about when the sky grew dark. It only takes one whiff, and then six hours later... Well, there's a fever, a terrible headache, comparable to migraines I believe, and the nosebleed that doesn't stop until the rest of it does..."

"Giles!" Xander called, trying to get him back on track. "What about the air? What's in it? Something demonic, like a plague?"

"Plague? Oh no, no, no, no, nothing like that my boy," Giles shook his head. "It does something else. To your brain. Not the mind, other things affect the mind, I assure you," he added at the look on Xander's face. "There are natural limiters built into the human brain that keep it from, well from overworking itself. From overheating, I once heard someone call it. These limiters are something of a survival trait, a part of evolution that we needed in the past and has been made universal in the present."

"Well, I say the present, but I mean your present of course," Giles started to ramble.

"Giles?"

"Oh yes, where was I?"

"Something about brain limits?" Xander shrugged, then joked, "Which would make a perfect excuse for my grades, come to think of it..."

"Ah, well, I'm afraid you won't have that excuse anymore, not that these limiters have any affect on intelligence mind you," Giles smirked at the younger man.

Xander was taken aback, eyebrow raised, he couldn't help commenting, "G-man? Was that a joke? At my expense? Wow! A monumental moment in history, and all it took was you losing your marbles to get a sense of humor. Go figure."

"Hmph!" Giles snorted and crossed his arms petulantly for a moment, then remembered what he was talking about and continued. "Anyway, the reason you won't have that excuse anymore has to do with what the air here does to people. To humans at least. I don't think it really affects demons all that much, other than making them rather... lethargic?"

"What does it do to humans?" Xander asked, concerned.

"It removes them," he said. "The limiters I mean. The built in limitations of the human brain, that which keeps it from overtaxing itself in day-to-day life. Without those limiters, we..."

"Die? Go crazy? Can't eat processed foods anymore?" Xander panicked.

Giles sighed and rolled his eyes. "Now I remember why my hallucinations of you were always so annoying. No, to all of that. The potential of the human mind is unlocked without these limiters in place. In the past, a few individuals here and there have managed to tear down or overcome those limiters on their own, but the air here... it dissolves them completely. And to give you a hint, the ones that overcame the limiters on their own were known as psychics."

Xander blinked and sat back down, hard.

"So... the air, or whatever is in it, gives humans psychic powers?" he clarified. Giles just nodded.

"Anything else I need to be freaking out over? Other than a headache, fever and massive nose bleeding that is? Cause I'm thinking I'm ready to go back now, unless you're trying to kill me _before_ I go back by giving me a heart attack here."

Giles just shrugged. "Well, you did ask. That's what happened with that poor unfortunate fellow out there. I have learned that me being a Watcher seems to have gifted me with more than just a calling. I can see, or 'Watch' rather, just about anywhere I care to. In the present at least. I can also 'Watch' the insides of demons, or people if I want to. I discovered shortly after the Hellmouth opened that I can also manipulate or control the things that I 'Watch', but only at a molecular level for some reason. I've tried to do bigger things, but it never seems to work just right. Didn't you wonder? About why the Library was intact? Why we weren't attacked until that idiot came charging in after us, only because he was half-blind at any rate?"

"Wait you mean..." Xander trailed off and stared wide-eyed at his old friend. "No way."

Giles smirked and replied with a very American, "Way."

"Yeah, I walk through the Valley of Death, fearing no evil, because I'm the baddest ass there," Xander quoted, shaking his head at Giles, smirking the whole time.

"Not quite, but something like that," Giles just shrugged. "You need to go now. And don't worry about me. Save Buffy and Willow, and I'll be saved with them."

"Will do," Xander got to his feet and shook the old man's hand. After a moment, they embraced in a manly hug and then let go.

Xander walked over to the phone, glanced back one final time at the old and broken man, then picked up the receiver and put it to his ear.

_Earth_

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Uncle Bob's Gas station_

_Three Hours After Xander Vanished_

The next thing he knew, and he hadn't blinked or anything, he was standing in a closed down gas station, where the glass was not broken, but the lights were off. Thankfully though, the sun was still up, but it was very close to setting. On the other hand though, he thought as he put the phone down back on the cradle, he was now trapped in a closed or abandoned gas station a few miles from his home and according to future-crazy-Giles, he was on a clock. He had less than three hours to get home and to bed before he started leaking vamp-bait from his nose. A quick check of the front door proved him right, he was locked in.

After checking out the rest of the place, Xander quickly considered his options. Try to jimmy the lock on the front or back doors, the latter of which was also boarded up. Throw something through the front window and run home as fast as he could. Or sit around and hope that on the off-chance this place hasn't been shut down, that somebody comes around and lets him out with no questions or scruples, like wanting to call the cops.

'_Throw something through the window it is then!_' He thought cheerfully.

A quick look around and he finally found something to do the trick. A big old rock, which he could only assume was for propping the door open, or maybe as a really big and awkward paper weight. Considering he found it behind the front counter, it could've been for just about anything.

Unfortunately, glass doesn't break as easily as movies and TV shows make it out to be. While Xander wasn't exactly on the softball team, he knew the fundamentals of throwing something and he hit the glass square each and every time. It still took another half hour of constant chucking at the thing to even get it to crack. He even tried throwing pieces of un-bolted-down furniture at it, which was only a small wooden chair that weighed less than the stone by about five pounds. He stuck with the stone until finally a spiderweb crack formed at the center. Ten or twenty more throws like that and finally it shattered like so much glass. Damn near bullet proof glass, but there you go!

Using the chair to clear out enough so he could actually get through without cutting himself, and he was on his way home, running through the not-ash-covered streets under a blue and yellow-setting-sun sky! Extra bonus; not a demon or vampire in sight the whole way home!

Not that he was going to stick around to wait for the sun to set to find out for sure, but the point was that he was _back_! Whether the whole thing was a trick or delusion or something else didn't matter for the moment. He'd glimpsed the future and now he had a chance to change it, to prevent that hell from coming to earth!

An hour and a half later, he was back home, as in his home, the Harris residence, and had just finished taking a shower, cleaning off all the dust and ash left over from his brief 'visit' to Psyren, and was staring at himself in the mirror. He did this too, after Jesse had been... After the Harvest had been stopped, he'd looked himself in the eye and sworn a silent vow to himself to never let another friend be taken by the dark like that.

This time, as he looked straight into his brown eyes, he vowed that he would not stop until he'd finally prevented that future of Psyren from ever happening. No matter what it took, he wouldn't let it happen.

Right after he cemented this new personal vow, some cosmic being decided to ram a metal spike the size of a two by four plugged into a car battery into the center of his skull and leave it there after turning the battery on to full! A second later, they decided to hammer it in a few more times until the tip of the spike touched his spine!

At least that's what it felt like to Xander as he grabbed the sink with both hands and suffered through the pain. When he had enough sense to look back up into the mirror, he saw the lower half of his face covered in blood, coming from both nostrils and it wasn't trickling either.

'_I guess he wasn't kidding about the headache and nosebleeds,_' Xander thought about crazy-Giles warnings from the future.

About ten seconds after this revelation filtered itself through his mind, the fever struck full force and without any mercy whatsoever. It took all of Xander's strength just to grab a dirty towel for his nose and crawl his way into his bed where he spent the rest of the night. If anybody had bothered checking on him, they would have seen the fever break exactly 360 minutes after it started. If he hadn't been unconscious at the time, Xander might have wondered what kind of fever lasts exactly six hours down to the second?

Then again, he'd have plenty more to wonder and worry about in the coming days.

TBC...?


	2. Recovery

Recovery:

_Earth_

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Sunnydale High School Library_

_Next Day_

The next morning, Xander woke up to a blood-soaked towel. Startled, he jumped back and fell out of his bed. Groaning, he remembered the previous day's events and got ready for school. Thankfully the nosebleed had finally stopped and after throwing away the towel and taking another shower, he was out the door and on his way. He actually reached the Library at about the same time Buffy and Giles did for their morning training.

"Hey guys!" he called happily, ecstatic to see them. Buffy alive, and Giles not crazy and wild man like.

"Xander, hey," Buffy said back. "Missed you yesterday. I thought you said you were gonna hang out after school, but you never showed."

"Uh, yeah, about that, I..." Xander stopped talking.

When he turned pale and they realized he'd stopped breathing as well as stopped talking, both Slayer and Watcher became concerned. "Xander?" Buffy called out, approaching him.

Instead of answering her, Xander grew more pale and grabbed his chest with one hand and his throat with the other. He collapsed right in front of them.

"XANDER!" Buffy screamed, picking up her friend.

"Quickly Buffy, in here," Giles ordered, opening the door to his office.

They carried Xander into the office and lay him down on the couch in there. Giles hurried over to the First Aid kit while Buffy hovered worriedly over her still very pale friend. Xander on the other hand, was trying to figure out what the hell was happening to him. He was about to spill the beans on the whole Psyren thing, that it was actually the future and they had to change it, but before he could even get that far, it was like something or somebody had grabbed hold of his insides and were getting ready to rip them out. Then, he saw it.

Or him, depending on your preference for noun identifiers.

Just outside, visible through the skylight in the main Library, which Xander could barely see through the office windows, standing there in broad daylight. It made Xander think of some kind of bird-man at first glance, but then he realized that was just the outfit. Except... he couldn't see a face beneath that beak-like helmet he was wearing, making Xander wonder what was going on. The figure was dressed all in white in some kind of robe. It's hands were skeletal, but more like white plastic than anything else. The head was curved and shaped like a parrot's beak, but pure white, the underside covered in shadow and hiding whatever face may or may not be there.

Suddenly, Xander remembered something Willow had told them about Psyren; "_Anybody involved does not talk about it at all, and after they get involved, they hide the fact that they are involved. Even demons and vampires get more notoriety, what with the Watchers having books all about them and everything. The only thing anybody knows about Psyren is that it involves these phone cards and some mysterious character named Nemesis Q. Nobody knows how Nemesis Q picks his victims or how he grabs them or where they go or even what Psyren is all about. Nothing!_"

'_So that's it,_' he thought sourly, still unable to breathe, or do anything for that matter. '_I talk about Psyren, you kill me with your weirdo powers. Let me guess, I don't talk, I get to live, is that it?_'

Oddly enough, Nemesis Q, because the mysterious figure couldn't be anybody or anything else, just crossed his arms and seemed to stare right back at Xander, waiting.

'_Fine!_' he growled when the pain got to be too much for him. '_I'm only doing this to protect my friends, and I can't do that if I'm dead. I'll keep you stupid secret! No talking about Psyren! I GOT IT!_' Xander screamed inside his own mind, and instantly he could breathe again and move and whatever had gripped him had obviously let go.

Just as Giles was about to start examining the young man to see what was afflicting him, his color suddenly returned in full, and he started breathing and coughing when the air came in too fast. Within minutes he was perfectly fine as far as Giles could tell.

"Oh my god, Xander! Are you all right? Should we take you to the hospital or something? What was that? Are you going to be OK?" Buffy fretted next to her friend, helping him to sit up.

"No," Xander's voice croaked as he tried to get his breathing under control. He tried again, "No, Buff. I'm OK. Or, at least I will be. I'm... I'm honestly not too sure what that was, but I have an idea or two."

"What happened?" Giles questioned, concerned despite himself.

"I..." Xander glanced briefly out the window, but Nemesis Q was long gone. "I was sick, or something last night. I can't really explain it. I came by the Library after school, but then something happened and I had to go home. I had a fever, headache, the whole nine yards and spent the rest of the day in bed after I got home."

Xander was very carefully navigating the truth/lie line here, as he knew Buffy and Giles could tell when he was lying, usually. Then again, if he had time to practice a lie, like say amnesia after being possessed by hyena spirits, or giving a grieving girlfriend a pep-talk about killing her boyfriend instead of stalling him to save his soul, well he could usually pull it off after one or two walkthroughs. Sticking as close to the truth as he could made it easier too.

"Are you going to be OK?" Buffy asked again.

Xander shrugged. "Couldn't begin to tell you. But I felt OK this morning, and no fever. That just now was... uh, I'm not sure. I just felt really, really weird. Like my insides were about to be ripped out of me or something. I feel OK now though," he hurriedly assured them both.

"Hm," Giles puzzled. "This could be a magical attack against you. Or rather against Buffy's friends. Like with Amy's mother when she wanted to," cue Proper Englishman shiver, "join the cheerleader squad. We should research this and see if your symptoms resemble anything on record."

"No, don't...!" Xander panicked and tried to call off the research hounds, but before he could really explain why not to, or his reaction, a nearby book suddenly flew up and smashed into a glass container on a distant shelf that was on the other side of the room from them.

"Whoa," Xander trailed off, looking around confused while Buffy and Giles jumped up.

"What was that? What did that?" Buffy demanded to know, her fists clenched and ready to fight.

"I... I'm not sure," Giles adjusted his glasses, but thankfully didn't take them off to clean them just yet.

He went over to pick up the book and checked it out, leaving the glass where it lay for the moment. "Hm," he commented, "Not one of the magical tomes capable of propelling itself or invoking magical reactions. Which means an outside force unfortunately. Let's take this outside, shall we?" Giles gestured for them to leave the office, following behind them.

"Now then, Xander I don't suppose you'd care to explain why you're lying to us?" the Watcher crossed his arms and glared coldly at the teen.

Xander silently gulped, his eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights. "L-ly-lying? Giles, G-man! Why would I lie about being sick? And I was! Sick! Fever and headache and everything!" he insisted.

"That may very well be true," Giles said, "but you're also hiding something from us. When I mentioned possibly researching your symptoms to discover if it was related to black magic or a potential attack on our group, you reacted quite negatively and then that non-magical book flew across the room on its own."

Xander gulped again, not bothering to be quiet about it this time as Giles and now Buffy glared at him.

"I have no doubt that you were sick last night Xander, but I also believe that you know the reason _why_ you were sick and are trying to hide that from us, whatever it may be," Giles said, putting his hands on his hips.

"Xander?" Buffy near-growled, her hands on her own shapely hips, "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing!" he immediately denied, shrugging his shoulders and hunching back from them. "Nothing's the matter with me! Except of course I was sick, yesterday, and maybe this morning, a few minutes ago. And I had nothing to do with that book thing, you gotta believe me!"

"Uh-huh," Buffy crossed her arms and tilted her head at him in that way that said she was deciding on which way to beat him up before sticking a stake through his heart.

"Really, there's nothing wrong with—" Xander was saying when Cordelia, Willow and Faith walked in behind him, the swing doors slamming against the wall as Faith came in first.

"Hey G! What's up?" the Boston Slayer drawled saucily.

"—GAH!" Xander screamed out loud, startled from the tension of facing down Buffy and Giles and then Faith bursting in the way she usually did. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only thing that jumped.

Every book in the library, every weapon in the cage, the table and all the chairs, and even the electronics interspersed throughout the place suddenly lifted and dropped a full inch in the space of a single second, while the electronics each blew up in multiple showers of sparks. Thankfully, this was the Hellmouth and everyone there was used to weird stuff happening all the time, so once everything had settled, they all turned to look at Xander and Giles. Xander because of his reaction, and Giles for the explanation.

"Xander," the Watcher started to clean his spectacles again, "Would you care to explain what it is that happened to you last night, or should we start researching on our own?"

"Uh..." he glanced around briefly, then felt a chill and looked straight up. Standing just above the skylight, clear as day, was Nemesis Q. Xander gulped again, then turned back to Giles and told him straight up, "I think I've got psychic powers now, and I can't tell you why or how it happened, because if I do I think I'm gonna either die spontaneously, get into a horrible accident, or be killed in a way that cannot be explained by science or sorcery."

Giles blinked, stunned. The rest of the group however, didn't stun as easy.

"WHAT?!" Cordelia shouted, loudest of all, though the rest were plenty loud enough.

"Xander! What did you do?" Buffy demanded.

"Ohmigawd-Xander-what-did-you-do-what-have-you-gotten-yourself-into-what-do-you-mean-you're-gonna-die-why-do-you-think-you're-gonna-die-what-happened-how-do-we-stop-this-how'd-you-get-psychic-powers-and WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GONNA DIE?!!" Willow screamed with very impressive lung power.

Xander blinked, then calmly replied in the sudden quiet, "I didn't say that I was gonna die Wills. I said I think I'm gonna die, _if_ I tell you how I suddenly got psychic powers. Or what happened to me. Or—" Xander stopped talking, feeling the pressure that warned him he was getting into dangerous territory. "Or anything like that," he finally said.

"Xander, what did you do?" Buffy demanded once more.

He hesitated, then looked her in the eye and said to her, "I can't tell you Buff. Otherwise I'm dead. You saw me. First words out of my mouth this morning would have been what… what I can't talk about. Before I could even open my mouth to speak, I collapsed and stopped breathing. You saw it. To me… it felt like somebody was about to rip my insides out or something. I… I care about you guys, all of you," he looked at Cordelia when he said this. "And I would absolutely do anything for all of you, and I would never intentionally keep something from any of you. Especially if it was important. But…"

He trailed off and sighed, running his fingers through his short-cropped black hair. Finally, he looked up and said to them, "If I tell you, or even try to tell you guys… anything. I'm dead. I know it. And what's worse, I'm dead _before_ I can actually tell you! Apparently the most I can get away with is telling you that I can't tell you anything about it."

"Can we guess?" Willow asked through her tears. All of them looked more than a little put out, but there was a hopeful look in his oldest friend's face.

Xander shrugged, briefly glanced up at the skylight, but Nemesis Q was long gone by now. He sighed and shrugged again before saying, "I can't even give hints. I think. But I can't control what you do or don't know, so… we can try?"

"OK," Willow nodded and started pacing, "OK. I'm good at guessing games. That's what researching is all about after all, trying to figure out how to deal with the latest crisis with the information we have on hand. This is just the latest crisis."

"Yes," Giles suddenly exclaimed, "Er, yes. That's exactly how we'll deal with this. Now then Xander, uh, where should we begin?"

Xander just shrugged, not really trusting himself with answering such an open-ended question where the slightest answer could have him collapsing all over again. And who knew if Nemesis Q gave "warnings" every time, or if he just snapped his neck when he got too close to the line one too many times.

"Oh, yes, that's right, my apologies," Giles began cleaning his glasses in earnest.

"So no hints, huh?" Faith suddenly spoke up. "Well, only thing I can think of that involves the X-man here that could do something like this is that Psyren card we gave to him for safekeeping a while back."

Xander froze and paled dramatically. He gulped.

"Oh no, Xander, please tell me you didn't," Buffy moaned.

"Xander… no," Willow started hysterically shaking her head.

"Well, that didn't take long," Oz found opportunity to comment.

Xander sighed and crossed his arms. "I…" he felt a warning sensation ripple through him. "I can neither confirm nor deny what may or may not have happened to the artifact I was given to guard last week."

"You used it, didn't you?" Buffy put her hands on her hips, confronting him.

"I can neither—"

"Cut the crap Xander!" Buffy shouted at him. "You crossed a line! We trusted you! You know what happens to people that get those things!"

Xander couldn't help thinking, _'Boy, don't I ever.'_ Verbally, he couldn't say a thing without tingles all up and down his spine, centering around his heart and lungs. Until he thought of one response and the tingles suddenly stopped. He looked up and faced the Slayer, looking her in the eye.

"Anything that I did, that I'm not allowed to confirm or deny, I did to protect you. And not just for you, Buffy, for all of us." Xander said. "How many times, Buff? How many times do we come across some artifact, or special text, or piece of information that comes back to bite us on the ass because we don't know enough about it ahead of time? I'm not going to apologize for doing what I still think was right. Though I can't share it, it's safe to say that I _do_ know some things that will help us out in the future. And while I may have to do this on my own, it's something that I can do and will make sure that… that… that—" He collapsed.

"XANDER!" Buffy, Willow and Cordelia all screamed at once.

"Damnit," Giles quickly pulled out another book, read through a folded page, and then pulled everyone back from the prone boy. A moment later, he held his hands and the open book over the failing body and uttered some unpronounceable words in Latin. A second later, Xander's entire body flashed with gold light and he started breathing once more.

"Now that is enough!" Giles snapped at the girls. "Xander's life literally depends now on keeping whatever secret he has been made privy to. No one, and I mean _no one_ question him further about this. Do I make myself clear?" He glared around the various occupants of the library.

They all gulped nervously and sheepishly ducked their heads in acknowledgment.

"I-I guess, n-now we know why no-body talks about Psyren," Willow stuttered, tears still streaming down her cheeks after seeing Xander almost die right before her eyes. "They… they literally _can't_ talk about it, otherwise they… they…." She sobbed.

"That…" Buffy cleared her throat, trying to keep her emotions in check, "That doesn't tell us why Xander can suddenly do things with his mind. Giles?"

The Watcher looked down at Xander, on the verge of asking him a whole slew of important questions they desperately needed the answers to, but he knew he couldn't. Otherwise he'd just end up torturing the poor boy. Finally, he got to his feet and sighed tiredly, despite the early hour of the day.

"I'll… make some calls. In the meantime, Xander, please try to refrain from getting too… excited. If being started evokes the kind of reaction from before, I dread to imagine what else you may now be capable of. Particularly if you get angry or overly… emotional. Emotions are often known to enhance psychic phenomenon. Until you gain control over these new… abilities, I suggest that you keep yourself under control."

"What are we going to do about this?" Buffy wanted to know.

Giles looked at her, and then slowly, almost shamefully turned away towards his office. "We're… going to get Xander some help. I know some people, psychics if you will, that can help him learn to control these new powers. And before you ask, no, I know of no way to remove these abilities from Xander. Not without more information, which is lethal to him if I might remind you Buffy!"

"These… powers, aren't a bad thing," Xander told them after a healthy pause. "They're natural. 100 percent human abilities, no demon, no magic, just pure human brain power."

"How do you know that, Xander?" Giles couldn't help asking.

Xander smirked, then replied without a trace of feeling ill or stressed, "You told me G-Man."

Giles frowned, as he had no memory of ever telling Xander anything of the sort. Then a very strange concept occurred to him. His eyes went wide, his pulse quickened as the thought filtered throughout his mind.

"Xander… _when_ did I explain this to you?" he asked. Xander just smiled, but didn't say a thing.

"Xander, besides Psyren, which we're entirely assuming without any confirmation from you, would you say that in the last twenty-four hours you've been anywhere else on the planet?" Xander's grin grew wider, and he very subtly shook his head no. He'd not been anywhere else on the planet other than Sunnydale, CA.

"Oh dear," Giles suddenly felt faint.

"What? What is it? Giles? Xander?" Buffy shouted at both of them.

"Omigawd!" Willow squealed and put her hands over her mouth.

"What?!" Buffy, Cordelia, Faith, and even Oz all asked.

"Future…!" Willow squeaked, then silenced herself again.

Xander didn't say a word, he just smiled.

"Whoa," Faith and Oz grunted.

"No way!" Buffy and Cordelia protested.

"Xander," Giles said with some urgency. "I need to know only one thing, and then I'll help you whatever you need, no questions asked in the future, understood. I know what I'm asking of you right now, but I truly need to know this." Xander hesitantly nodded. Even without psychic powers, he knew what Giles wanted to know. Still, he waited for the question.

"Dead or alive?" was all he asked.

The others looked shocked at the Watcher, most confused by the simple question.

Xander waited, fully intending to answer Giles, but he wanted to see how much of a leash he had first. So far, no warnings. Taking a deep breath, he felt the safest thing to do would be to keep the answer as short as the question. Keep things short and let them figure out the rest on their own.

"Just you," he finally answered.

"Dear God," Giles moaned, putting his head in his hands. "How…?

"Me," Xander answered before the question could be asked.

Giles and Willow's eyes went wide in understanding. "I see," the Englishman said.

"I'll make those calls right now," Giles immediately went into the office, only pausing to tell the others, "Oh, and this is vitally important. All of you need to make sure that Xander remain calm and unemotional until we can get someone to help him with his… powers. I'm not asking you to turn him into a robot, just make sure that he doesn't get… angry or excited, and for the love of god, keep people from scaring him!"

"Oh yay, what fun," Xander sarcastically remarked.

_Sunnydale High School_

_After School_

By the time school finally ended, all of the Scooby Gang was glad of it. Keeping Xander calm and 'un-excited' had turned out to be a task easier said than done. And not all of it was Xander's fault… exactly…

The worst of the trouble could be placed squarely on the shoulders of the jocks of Sunnydale High's sports teams. Primarily the football jocks, but if they wore a sports jersey, they contributed to the whole, no matter what team they were on. Even the cheerleaders could be placed at fault, though for entirely different reasons, and using logic that none of the girls agreed with.

The morning was actually rather basic and nothing particularly extraordinary happened as far as any of them could tell. It was just history, math, science and Literature/Writing (more commonly known as English Classes) for the morning. All classes that Xander either slept through or was too busy trying to follow along and think things through to get agitated in any way.

It wasn't until Lunch that things got a bit hairy.

The gang had gotten a bit complacent, seeing nothing else flying around or jumping in place, they'd stopped paying close attention to Xander's surroundings, so it could be understood, if not forgiven, in how they all missed how all the jocks in the cafeteria suddenly circled Xander off from the rest of the student body and corralled him into a secluded corner. Five minutes later, Xander nervously joined them at their table and when asked if anything had happened, he didn't really say anything, just sort of shrugged and looked around fearfully.

After Lunch, they all soon discovered that every single sportsman in Sunnydale High, some of the most notorious bullies to walk the halls in fact, were all being taken to the hospital. They'd been found just outside the cafeteria. More specifically, they'd been found on the roof of the cafeteria and had apparently suffered from injuries consistent with jumping off a building.

Xander hurriedly explained, after they'd dragged him back to the Library, that the jocks had all surrounded him and were making fun of him and said some things he'd objected to. When pressed on what was said, Xander kept his lips sealed, even to the point that the shelves, tables, books, and pretty much anything not bolted down started rattling like they were in an earthquake. A few guarded replies to Giles, and the Watcher summed it up to the rest of them that they asked Xander how much each of them "cost" and that if they were willing to be seen hanging out with a "loser" like him, how much would it take for "more" from each of them.

The girls stopped yelling at Xander about being "careless" after hearing that. Cordelia even kissed him.

The next event happened during free period. After Lunch, they were all much more vigilant, but it couldn't be helped when the school bad boy and all around bully Jack O'Toole came up to Xander and held him at knife-point while Buffy was being "held up" by a couple of the guy's friends. Before anything could even be said, and entirely because the guy had scared the crap out of Xander when he pulled out his knife, which he called "Katie", Jack and all his friends were picked up off their feet by unseen forces, slammed together and sent flying like they'd been shot out of a rail-gun on a military gunship. They eventually found out that they landed somewhere out in the ocean and were in critical care, in an LA-based hospital.

After that, it had been mostly minor things. People that bumped him in the hall were "tripped" off their feet, anybody else that tried to mess with Xander the rest of the day were usually "pushed" away from him instead of sent flying a few miles, and more annoying than dangerous, when a few of the Varsity Cheerleaders started randomly flirting and flaunting themselves in the halls, the girls skirts tended to be more up than down and when Xander was near the point of publicly drooling no matter who saw him, the rest of their uniforms suddenly became gravity challenged and almost ripped themselves off the young girls bodies.

The girls started yelling at Xander all over again after that, Cordelia slapped him the back of the head.

Now, thankfully, school was over with and they were the only ones still in the building, as far as students are concerned. Giles was still making phone calls, but he could confirm for them that he had gotten a hold of someone that could and would help Xander in learning to control his newfound powers. Unfortunately, it would be at least another two or three days before he arrived. Just in time for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (basically a five day weekend), but it still meant another few days of making sure Xander didn't get bullied, startled, angry, or sexually aroused. None of them were looking forward to the experience.

_Giles Apartment_

_Three Days Later_

Finally, they got word that Giles' friend had arrived and were told to get Xander over to his apartment after school the day the school holiday began. The first evening Xander had gone home, he'd called the whole gang fifteen minutes after getting home and asked if he could spend the night over at their place.

Even Faith's crappy motel.

When they all, even Oz, showed up at his house to escort/pick him up, they soon found out why, as the roof of his house had several holes in it and all the windows were broken. There was also a lot of flying debris both inside and outside the house, just floating there like gravity couldn't affect them in the slightest. That the debris was all mostly beer bottles and other such things made them get Xander out of there that much faster. After that, he'd been joining in a lot of "sleepovers" at Buffy's, Willows, and even Cordelia's homes. Faith and Oz attended to ensure that nothing else happened.

That was only part of the reason for asking the others to bring Xander, however. The other half came in what Xander had taken to doing in order to avoid accidentally killing someone by sending them into Low Earth Orbit. Namely, he'd joined a club. A High School extracurricular during-school activities club. To be more specific, he'd joined the Chess Club.

There were only three members of the Chess Club at Sunnydale High; Jonathan Levinson, Poindexter Lebowitz (Club President), and now Xander Harris. It nearly drove Xander insane having to put up with the uber-nerd of California that was Poindexter, and the super shy guy named Jonathan that Xander had a vague suspicion was due to be the next "Marcie" at some point, but at least he had a recognizable face.

Still, he didn't get stressed, and he stayed away from the jocks and cheerleaders and other people that may want to beat him up or otherwise antagonize him. And as an added bonus, he was learning the game and getting an honest grasp of strategy, thanks both to Jonathan's patience with him, Poindexter's awesome chess skills, and vaguely remembered Soldier memories from the year before. That didn't make him an instant super strategist or put him in the running for the next _Revenge of the Nerds_ movie, but he was staying out of trouble and having fun while doing it too.

Willow grabbed him from yet another trouncing by Poindexter to take him to Giles' apartment, and they soon arrived, whole gang in tow, minus Angel of course.

"Ah excellent," Giles said upon allowing them entrance to his home, without actually inviting them in of course. "I'm glad you all managed to make it. Especially you Xander. I have someone I'd like you to meet."

"Really? This someone that psychic friend of yours that's supposed to help me learn how to control myself or something?" Xander asked, feeling justifiably stressed. "Because that is why we're here, right?"

"Something like that," an older man stood up from the couch in the living room. "Mostly, I'm just here out of curiosity to see if I really need to be here or not. So far I'm not impressed Rupert."

The man was as tall as Giles himself, with styled glossy black hair, and where Giles dressed in tweed three-piece suits, and looked very much an English Professor straight from a museum, this man looked like a professional businessman, no matter what continent you were from. It was a silk and cotton power business suit, something you see millionaires wear as regular attire because it's both outrageously expensive and exceedingly comfortable to wear. The man himself was white, spoke in a neutral accent-less voice that was neither American nor European, but something in between. His most distinguishing feature however was his vivid sky-blue eyes. They seemed to pierce through whoever and whatever he focused them on with ease.

"Yes, well, let's not…" Giles started to say, but Faith took things out of his hands.

"BOO!" she screamed in Xander's ear while grabbing his neck with her hand shaped like a claw.

"GYAHHH!" he screamed, startled, and a practically visible wave of psi shot out from him in all directions, looking like some kind of distortion wave.

"Sunova!!" the man screamed as soon as it happened, and reacted even faster, throwing out his hands. As soon as he did that, an invisible there-but-not-really-there wall appeared around Xander and seemingly absorbed whatever the distortion wave was. Thankfully, nothing went flying or anything.

"Rupert," the man gasped after a second when nothing else happened, "I retract my earlier statement. I am now impressed. When did this start?"

"Less than a week ago," Giles answered straightforward.

"What?!" the man screamed, looking in shock between Xander and Giles. "How did this happen?!"

"I can't tell you," Xander told him before Giles could.

"Oh really?"

"Psy—" Giles started to say, but Xander cut him off.

"GILES! No," he shook his head in warning.

"Psy… what?" the psychic prompted them all.

"I. Can't. Tell. You." Xander reiterated with special emphasis.

"Please," Willow suddenly stepped forward, tears brimming in her eyes, "if-if Xander even tries to tell us how this happened to him… something happens and he st-star-starts d-d-dy-die… If he tells anyone he'll die!" she finally shouted at him.

"Greg…" Giles said, but trailed off at his friend's glare.

"Rupert," Greg said in turn. "If you want my help, I need to know everything. I need to know the truth."

"Well," Giles sighed, "the truth is that every time Xander has attempted to tell us what happened to him and how he got his powers, his body has effectively shut down before he can even say a word. And I don't just mean slipping into a coma, Gregory, I mean that it is as if someone or something is strangling him from the inside out. So I'm sorry, but that is the way it is. Now this boy needs your help. Will you help him?"

Greg sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Always with the guilt trip, eh?" he said to Giles. Then he looked Xander over and glanced at everyone else. "All right then. I'll do what I can. But I still need to know how you got your powers. It is important."

Everyone glared, untrusting towards the man until Giles said to them, "Oh. How terribly rude. Everyone, this is Gregory Magnus. He's an old friend from university. We went to Oxford together. Gregory, well, Greg, is a psychic of startling potential. He's the friend I called to help Xander. And, I trust him."

With that said, the glares relaxed and some more weight was given to what the man had said.

Xander gulped and thought about what to say that wouldn't get him killed, literally.

"I..." he waited for a second and even looked around for good measure before finally admitting, "I did something with something the others gave me to hold onto. After I used this thing, I was..." another pause and look around, "I was taken to some other place. Spirited Away is the term Willow calls it. St—" Xander started to say something else, but suddenly he turned pale and stopped breathing.

"XANDER!" all the girls shouted in fear.

Greg blinked, then picked up the young man and carried him over to the couch. Without touching him.

The moment Xander was laid out, he put his hands over the youth and within moments he started breathing again and color returned to his features. After another few seconds of holding his hands over him, Greg finally stood up and looked down at Xander.

"I believe you. It would seem that whatever did happen to you, a program was put in place somewhere inside you that prevents you from discussing it with anyone. Still, even without knowing the whole story, a person like you should not be left to muddle through things like this on their own. I will help you."

"Uh, thanks?" Xander said. He decided laying on the couch for another few minutes would be better than standing right then, especially judging by the looks on the girls faces, like they wanted to hug him to death or something.

"Don't thank me just yet. I've seen people go crazy from just trying to get to the level of power you're at right now. Starting there and trying to control it may do the same, or worse to you," Greg told him in straight forward terms. "And it's going to take time. Time that you don't have as it is. How do you feel about missing a week of school or more?"

"I'm so far not seeing the downside," Xander grinned up at the older psychic.

"Th-there's a holiday coming up!" Willow blurted out. "Thanksgiving weekend. That's tomorrow actually, and it lasts the whole weekend and the Monday after too!"

"Darn, so close," Xander snapped his fingers. Instantly every book in the room levitated itself a foot in the air and remained completely stationary.

Greg looked down at the sheepish Xander. "How the hell are you doing that? Are you... concentrating on it at all, or just reaching out instinctively?"

"Uh..." Xander sat up and thought about it for a minute. "Both, I guess."

He turned to stare at the nearest book and focused his thoughts towards it and all the other books that were floating stationary around the room. He found/felt the part of him that was already concentrating on them and keeping them aloft. If he had to compare it to anything, he'd say it was like moving his fingers or arms and legs, but different. It wasn't something he _thought_ about, he just thought it and it happened. He put the books all back down in the places he'd picked them up from same as if he'd done it with his hands.

"Huh," he tilted his head in interest. "That's kinda cool."

"Normally it takes a person serious effort to use their psi, and a lot of exercise before they can establish it into programs that make it easier to use," Greg explained. "I'm curious, if you've just developed these powers, how is it that you're able to use it so fluidly all of a sudden?"

"Well, that's just it," Xander shrugged. "You asked if I was concentrating on it, which a part of me was, or if I was just reaching out instinctively, which I kind of did. When I snapped my fingers, I was thinking about how I couldn't get out from going to school, which generally means that I have to carry books. That was it."

"So... you were thinking about carrying books, abstractly, then snapped your fingers and every book in the room was picked up like you were carrying them?" Greg asked, disbelieving.

Xander could only shrug.

"Fine," he growled at the teen. "Let's do a little bit of an exercise here. Think about pinching your girlfriend's ass."

Xander blinked, then glared. "Hey! I—!" he stopped speaking when Greg's face flew back like the man had been punched. Which is exactly what it felt like to him.

"OK, I guess I deserved that," Greg commented, rubbing his jaw. "And I see what you mean. You're psi is reacting _entirely_ upon your instincts. And that's more dangerous than it just leaking out uncontrollably."

"Really? I thought some control was better than no control?" Buffy commented from the sidelines.

"In most cases, yes, that is true," he replied. "But in a psychic's case, the instinct is tied directly to the subconscious mind, and well, suffice it to say that if there is a dark side to a person, it can be found in the subconscious. As an example, Xander, please, for the sake of testing your abilities, just casually think of what you would like to do if it were just you and your girlfriend here alone in the room."

Xander's eyes unconsciously glazed over as his imagination took over and latched onto the last 'idea' he'd heard in that regards.

"Ow!"

"Hey!"

"What the...?!"

"XANDER!"

Willow, Buffy, Faith and Cordelia all screamed out at once, jumping like somebody had just slapped them on their backsides. Or something else. They weren't saying, but they were all glaring angrily at their male friend, Cordelia and Willow both rubbing their bottoms.

"See what I mean?" Greg shrugged.

"Help!" Xander cowered on the couch.

"We're leaving," Greg told him and the rest of the room at the same time. "We'll be back on Monday, or as soon as he masters his control, whichever happens first. Giles, pack him a bag and deliver it to my cabin in the desert. Don't bring the girlfriends."

"HEY!" all the women in the room shouted indignantly.

"And if you don't want me to leave you behind, I suggest you follow me," he told Xander, who immediately got to his feet and followed the man out the door. Before anybody else could do anything, the two apparent psychics were gone, not to be seen for at least the next five days.

_Sunnydale High School_

_Library_

_Next Tuesday_

Alexander LaVelle Harris walked into school with a whole new perspective on just about everything, and it showed. The moment he stepped out of the car and onto the sidewalk, everybody within sight turned to stare at the young man, and more than one jaw dropped to the floor.

Xander smirked to himself and almost sexily shook his head. He turned to Greg and smiled knowingly. He'd been the one to drive Xander to school and it was his car that he was stepping out of. The fact that it was a jet-black corvette certainly didn't hurt matters either, though Xander did have to admit the reason for all the stares probably had to do with the way he was dressed. Rather than the sweatshirt and cargo pants or Hawaiian shirts and faded jeans, today he was dressed in seamless black slacks, a fitted dark brown silk dress shirt, and a plain black blazer. The difference was like night and day to most, so much that no one could believe their eyes.

"Thanks again, Greg," Xander reached across the top of the car and shook the older psychic's hand.

"No trouble at all, Xander," Greg replied. "I'm glad to have met you, if only to get used to your jokes."

"Hey, it's still funny, even after having to clean everything up," Xander laughed. Greg joined in, but got back into his car rather than say any more.

"See ya kid! Don't get yourself killed!" he shouted as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"I'll do my best!" Xander shouted back, before turning to enter the school building.

Ten steps from the front door, Xander's eyes squinted in concentration for the briefest of seconds. Anybody looking at him didn't notice a single thing, but if anybody had happened to have been looking about three feet over his head, which they weren't, they would have seen a very odd sight. A white/gray _cloud_ appeared out of nowhere just over his head before turning invisible. Though it could no longer be seen, it was definitely still there. If one looked close enough, they could see a vague distortion in the air hovering over Xander's head, trailing behind him like something out of a cartoon.

Not bothering with Home Room for once, Xander walked straight to the Library after entering the school, though he took a rather roundabout way of getting there, and of course it was pure coincidence that he always just happened to be turning the corner right as Snyder would have seen him as he patrolled the school.

Once he reached the double swing doors to the Library, he stopped for a minute, as though he were waiting for something. Finally, as though mentally preparing himself, he took a deep breath and walked into the Library, pushing both doors wide open.

"Hey everybody! Guess who's back?" he called, walking confidently into the room.

"Xander?!" everyone in the room exclaimed all at once.

"Wow, good guess," he grinned and held his arms open. "What? No hugs this time? I'm so disappointed I may decide to tell you about..."

"Don't you dare!" Buffy shouted at him and was a step behind Willow in going to hug him.

The whole gang was there, books open all across the table, and Oz and Faith were still at the table, while Giles was just now getting off the phone. "Whoa, did I miss something? New demon? Apocalypse? Prophecy? Or is this just to research what to get Giles for Christmas?"

"Oh you!" Cordelia slapped him on the arm and giving him a hug of her own after Willow and Buffy made room. "Apparently there's some kind of super demon thingie that's in town working for that guy that put me and Buffy in that Slayerfest thing. Something about Angel hearing he was back in town."

"Oh really?" Xander arched an eyebrow in interest.

"So?" Buffy questioned as the girls dragged him over to a seat at the table. "What's up with you? And who dressed you? Because it's actually nice for a change."

"Hey!" he protested.

"It's about time you wore that," Cordelia said as she sat on his right side. "I bought that for you like a month ago. You should have worn the tie with it though, makes you look more professional."

"Cordy, I'm wearing it to school," he pointed out. "And in answer to the obvious, it's something I had hanging in my closet for a special occasion. Except when Giles packed my travel back, he was extremely limited in outfit choice it would seem."

Giles ignored the glare sent his way and just came back to the table with another book in hand. "Yes, well, now that you're back, perhaps you can assist us in researching the weaknesses needed to exploit this... super... demon... thingie..."

"Sure thing, what's the name?" he asked, clapping his hands and standing to his feet.

"Dullahan," Giles replied. "From I've been able to find out about it, it will be very difficult to slay this beast. Our best bet, from what we've discovered so far should be to take it out from a distance."

"How about blowing it up? That always seems to work," Xander shrugged.

Everybody stared at him for a second, and Giles even took off his glasses and started to clean them.

"Yes, well," he said, tolerantly, "Too bad we did not keep that rocket launcher you and Buffy stole from the army, but then again if we had, we all would undoubtedly be locked away in prison by now."

"No way, you guys used a rocket on a demon? Sweet!" Faith exclaimed.

"Aw, twern't nuthin' Ma'am," Xander shrugged bashfully, before turning serious again. "Besides, are you guys forgetting? Hello, Mister Psychic here!" he waved his hand in the air.

"So, you have control now?" Giles asked, interested. "Although I fail to see how your being a psychic comes into blowing up this rather difficult to kill demon."

Xander looked at him, then just _stared_ at the table. A second later, all the books suddenly lifted up on their own accord and started flying around the room, most of them going to the shelves from which they'd been gotten, except for six books in particular that all settled back down on the table and opened themselves to specific pages.

"The Dullahan demon," Xander recited, apparently from memory, "A possessed husk of a once perished demon, the Dullahan's only form of attacking includes stabbing using the rotating spikes attached onto the shield, and slashing airborne enemies with its sword. The effectiveness of its armor prevents all forms of frontal attack; its only weakness being the red gem embedded into its spine. The gem itself is a hard object, so long range crossbow bolt won't be effective, it will have to be smashed or broken with a blade of some kind."

"Or," he smiled at all of them, "I could just pick it up and rip the gem out telekinetically."

Everyone stared in stunned amazement at their friend, unsure on how to react.

"Xander," Buffy was the first to speak, "How did you do that?"

He shrugged and grinned, sitting back down and leaning back in the chair, putting his hands comfortably behind his head. "Well, a couple of ways actually. Oh, and don't worry, already proved and tested that I can talk about my actual powers all I want and nothing to worry about. Just don't mention the Psy-place, OK?"

"That was sweet," Faith observed. "You can do that all the time now? Not just when scared."

"I went out there to learn control, and control is what I learned," he happily told them.

"So you can't get away with blaming your libido if girls skirts start flying everywhere?" Cordelia crossed her arms imperiously.

Xander grinned, then told her, "Believe me Cor, if I _wasn't_ in control, every girl's dress for miles would be flying up around their neck right about now. I swear, I'll only use my powers for good and make sure that I don't abuse them or lose control either. Now, questions? Comments? More blatant accusations?"

"What specifically are your abilities, Xander?" Giles asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Well, with Greg's help, and thanks again for introducing me to him G-man, I found out I have a couple of abilities," he told them. "First up, the one I'm sure everybody's familiar with by now, Greg called it by it's technical name; long-range molecular and large-scale instinctive psychokinesis. We both came up with a better, short-hand name for it. _Farscape_."

"Farscape?" Willow repeated, incredulous.

Xander just grinned and shrugged again.

"Hey, it fits. My maximum range, and we did measure it, accurately, is somewhere around ten or fifteen miles out in all directions. And when I say all directions, I mean _all directions_. I can cave in the Master's lair if you want me to, right now in fact. You want some coffee and donuts from the Coffee Shop in town, I'll have it here in ten minutes, won't even have to get out of my chair."

"Extraordinary," Giles exclaimed. "Y-you said that you had multiple abilities? How is that possible?"

Xander shrugged. "Greg, despite me not telling him anything, managed to figure out the 'what' on what happened to me when I got these powers. Way he explained it to me, partly having to do with the fact that I've been born and raised on a mystical convergence, and partly because I've been possessed a couple of times and haven't gone insane or anything, my psychic potential was ginormous, just shy of what he called an 'Almighty-type'. And what ended up happening was a couple of physiological barriers in my brain dissolving like so much salt in water so that pretty much my entire psychic potential was realized all at once."

"As for my other abilities, well," he continued, "there's something I kind of need to explain that took me the entire drive out there to wrap my head around. First up, there are three general classifications on psi. Number one," he held out his hand and the book right in front of him lifted up and started flipping through the pages like a speed reader, "is what Greg calls _Burst_. Pretty much it's me focusing the psi and letting it out in bursts of energy to affect the environment around me. Second, there's _Trance_. That is pretty much what everybody thinks of when you say the word psychic. Telepathy, mind-control, reading peoples thoughts, the whole nine yards. If it has to do with another person's _mind_ in any way, it's Trance. Last, but certainly not least is what he called _Rise_. Rise, basically is controlling and manipulating psi within your own body. Feats of superhuman strength, healing, speed, endurance, heck even pain resistance has to do with Rise in some way."

"Greg taught me so I could focus my psi into all three categories. Not all at once. Not yet at least. But as it happens to turn out, I have two Burst abilities, and one Trance ability. As far as Rise goes, I can boost my body so that you guys don't have to worry about me on patrol anymore. Trust me."

"Oh really?" Buffy questioned, curious despite the impulse to show Xander up all of a sudden.

"Yeah, in terms of raw strength, I can probably match both you and Faith together," he proudly admitted.

"Care to put your money where your mouth is?" Faith challenged.

Xander shrugged and got to his own feet.

"Now understand," he said, "I just said raw strength. As good as Greg is, he couldn't teach me all that you guys know about fighting, not in five days at any rate."

"Well, glad to see that this hasn't gone completely to your head," Buffy retorted. "How do you want to do this? Arm wrestling match? Tug of war?"

"How about you and Faith try to push me over?" he grinned and held both his hands up, palms outward.

"Seriously?" Faith scoffed. He just grinned at her and held both hands at the ready.

"Fine, here ya go," she pushed against his hand with enough raw strength that he would land painfully on his backside. Instead, he just braced himself and casually pushed her own hand back at her, nearly putting her on _her_ butt!

Frowning, the brunette Slayer tried again, this time putting real effort into it as Xander pushed back against her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Buffy doing the same thing with his other hand. He not only remained standing, but his hands were slowly, but surely pushing back against theirs. And it was just as clear that this really was his strength and not that telekinesis thing of his, they could see the muscles in his arms and lower back working as he kept up the pressure and returned some of it to the two Slayers.

"OK, what the hell?" Faith exclaimed after a minute of trying to topple Xander.

"Told you," he gasped, sweating a bit from the amount of strength he'd called up. "Raw strength. Psi can seriously boost you, way better than steroids, or exercise for that matter."

Neither Buffy nor Faith were ready to admit they had a healthy glow of their own, but they weren't ready to quit just yet. Finally, Faith had had enough and suddenly cut loose and tried to trip Xander with a leg sweep. All of a sudden, he was just _gone_, and neither of the girls had a clue on what had just happened.

"Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I also can move really fast when I want to as well?" Xander commented from behind everyone, standing by the railing on the stairs.

"How'd you do that?" Faith demanded to know.

"It's an aspect of Rise that Greg calls _sense_, and it basically boosts my reaction time just as much as my strength," he answered. "Convinced?"

"Uh, yeah," Buffy nodded. "Don't suppose you could teach me that?"

"You'd have to ask Greg," Xander told her. "Basically all he told me to do, after I gained control, was to focus my psi into my body and then we started street fighting. From there it was pure trial and error."

"Simply extraordinary," Giles said from the sidelines. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I probably wouldn't have believed it. You mentioned that you had two, er, Burst abilities? And Trance you said?"

Xander nodded. "Well, Farscape I've already told you about and shown off a bit. So let me introduce you to my second Burst ability. It actually helps me out in using Farscape long distance, and it's how I read all those books while I was moving them about. Or did you guys not notice that all the books left are the only ones with references to the demon you mentioned?"

"Really? Wow! That's amazing Xander!" Willow enthusiastically replied.

"Xander?" Giles reminded him.

"Oh, right, sorry. Drum roll please?" Dead silence. "Alright, fine. Meet _Voyager_."

Instantly the cloud that had been invisible since he'd walked into the building reappeared over Xander's head and continued to just float there. They all looked up and stared for a minute, unsure.

"Uh, what's it do?" Cordelia asked nervously.

"It's sort of how I can see long range to use Farscape in the first place. The technical term for it is a psi-projection tele-viewing and energy manipulation construct. What it does," he said as the cloud moved down to eye level in front of all of them, "is it lets me see pretty much every single thing around it, in all directions, all at once. And before you ask G-man, no, it doesn't screw with my own vision, because the picture that comes from this construct here comes straight into my head, so it's more like a very vivid daydream to me instead of pictures cutting off my normal vision. And it can do other stuff too, but first and foremost, it lets me see things that are far away and makes it easier for me to focus on the 'far' aspect of Farscape."

"Extraordinary," Giles repeated. He poked at the gray/white cloud a couple of times, and while he could touch it, it was more like poking a sponge that didn't move. Truly something unique.

"You said that already, Giles," Xander pointed out.

"What about that trance power you mentioned?" Willow asked, curious despite herself.

"Ah, well, you know me Wills," he sheepishly grinned at her. "Why mess with something that works, and I had Voyager here working before I had mastered control over Farscape, or even started working on Trance. But Greg wouldn't let me quit halfway, so I worked all day Sunday on it, but I finally came up with... _Vygr_. A pure Trance-psi construct virtually identical to Voyager here, except that Vygr can only be aware of other peoples minds."

"And that helps you out, how?" Buffy questioned, ignoring the odd name that both Willow and Oz were snickering over.

Xander, restraining his own laughter, answered her, "Well, for starters, nobody, except maybe another psychic, can even detect Vygr. As for Voyager, well," the cloud disappeared as he said that, "I managed to figure out how to hide that pretty well. But Vygr, it's a cloud that 'sees' other people's minds, and all I have to do is put a Vygr cloud over someone's head or body and it's like I have a direct channel into their heads. Works same way as Voyager does, I hear what their thinking, can even see what they see, and go through memories and other stuff like that. Not so good on the mind control part, mostly just the telepathy and reading peoples thoughts. But unlike with Burst, which it seems I'm pretty good at, with Trance I have to really focus and can't use anything else _but_ that when I am using it."

"Well, that's a relief," Cordelia admitted.

Xander just smiled and made 'Voyager' visible again.

"For the most part, I just keep this thing invisible and spread it out like a fog of psi all around me. It keeps me from being surprised by people or things coming up from behind or around corners. Helped me avoid Snyder on my way in actually."

"OK, now I'm really jealous," Buffy pouted.

Xander grinned at her, and was about to continue when he heard something very unexpected at that moment. A phone ringing.

Turning to look at the counter, he frowned when he saw the light was not flashing, and that out of everyone in the room, he was the only one that he could see to actually react to the sound. Unfortunately, at that moment, Voyager was still visible and down in front of him, so he hadn't seen Cordelia perk up and look around, as she was standing right behind him, hidden from Voyager's view.

Another ring, and Xander's eyes went wide, realization sweeping through him with cold clarity.

"Uhh..." he stalled, dispelling Voyager and stopped using Farscape, putting anything left floating back on solid surface. "I, uh, I'm sorry to cut this short guys, but I, uh," another damn annoying ring, "I've really got to get to class all of a sudden. I'll... see you guys when I can, OK?" He was already running out of the Library.

"Xander? Wait!" Willow called, before turning to the others and asking, "What was that about?"

"I don't know, he looked distracted all of a sudden. But he is right, we need to get to class," she reminded the bookworm.

"Hey, uh, does anybody else hear that ringing?" Cordelia suddenly asked, digging through her purse. "Has anybody seen my cell phone? I think I hear it ringing."

"I don't hear anything," Faith told the buxom brunette.

"Weird," Cordelia frowned, "Giles, can I use the phone in your office real quick? I want to see if I can find my cell phone, maybe it's what's ringing, but I..."

"Yes, that's fine Cordelia, just please be careful," the Englishman gestured, still clearly thinking on the revelations Xander had brought with him upon his return.

"Thanks!" she called and entered the office, leaving her purse on the counter. She adjusted her vivid aquamarine dress, pressing the mid-thigh length skirt a little lower and took a moment to find the phone in the office. Finally finding it, she picked up the receiver and was about to dial her own cell phone number when she put it to her ear and suddenly everything changed.

To Be Continued...

AN: Gregory Magnus is an Original Character created by me. Name was inspired by Amanda Tapping's new show "Sanctuary", but the character himself is not specifically from anywhere. He's the stereotypical "Teacher" that helps out the hero(es) at the moment, so don't bother looking for him in other sources. And if you want to borrow him, please be sure to ask and get permission first. Thank You. And Don't Forget To Review!


	3. Round Two

Round Two:

_Psyren_

_Sunnydale Outskirts_

_Time Unknown_

Cordelia was about ten seconds from screaming her head off. If it hadn't been for the last couple of years of exposure to Sunnydale weirdness, and more specifically hanging with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and friends, she already would be screaming her head off.

One second she'd been picking up a phone to make a call so she could find her own cell phone, and the next she was standing in the middle of the street off of the set of Resident Evil. After pinching herself a couple of times, she realized that it was no dream, illusion, or anything else but real. Which automatically left only one conclusion. The apocalypse had come, she had missed it, and Buffy had failed to stop it.

Looking down at herself, she realized that she was exactly the way she'd been the last time she'd checked, satin mid-thigh length aquamarine colored dress, blue sweater mini-jacket left open and covering her arms to just past the elbow, and matching three-inch high heels. There was also no signs of an explosion, burn marks, falling dust, or anything at all that said how she arrived where she now stood. Judging from the dust and debris around her, it looked like she'd just popped into existence right where she stood and said appearance had not disturbed a single atom around her before she was already there.

Cordelia took a deep, calming breath and tried to think this through. Only to realize that it was Giles and Willow that did all the thinking and she usually just helped around with reading the books and moral support.

That was about the time the growls started.

Knowing better than to scream out loud when there was no Slayer nearby, Cordelia looked around for the source of the growls, only to catch a glint of yellow coming from the shadows of an abandoned building behind her. The yellow, she soon realized, belonged to a set of yellow eyes. Demonic yellow eyes. More than one set of demonic yellow eyes! Vampires!

"Oh crap!" she cursed and started running. Behind her, she heard the sounds of pursuit from the vamps.

It didn't take her long to recognize the street she was running down. It was on the east side of Sunnydale, only a few miles from the High School. She knew she could never make it, but it put a goal in her mind. Not too far from where she was now, she saw a broken down gas station, which would be of no help, and across the street, only a few dozen meters away, a two story building complex. She almost laughed and cried at the same time when she saw the cross out front and the torn down sign in front of it. Baptist Church of Sunnydale, the sign read.

Cordelia made for the church as fast as she could, but tripped just past the sidewalk and fell to the ground. She could hear the vampires holler and cheer and she knew she was dead. She could only hope they didn't turn her, or worse. The worst thing about helping with the reading, was that when Angelus had been around, Giles had made them all read up on what the worst vampires could really do.

Cowering and trying to cover herself, Cordelia waited for the end as the vampires finally reached her.

Only... they didn't. Reach her that is.

After about half a minute, she tentatively looked up and around, surprised when she saw no vampires at all, and then confused when she saw a lot more dust on the ground than had been a few minutes before.

"Hey," a very familiar voice spoke from behind her.

"Xander?" she said out loud, getting to her feet and spinning around.

There he was, dressed same as he was five minutes earlier, standing in the door way to the church, his eyes hard and steady.

"Cordelia, what the hell are you doing here?" he demanded, as angry as she had ever heard him before.

"Uhh..."

_Sunnydale Baptist Church_

_Fifteen Minutes Later_

"All right," Xander said out loud, holding his hands up for further emphasis. "Let me see if I've got this straight. You all got Psyren cards in the mail. Like in a sweepstakes or something, you said," he pointed to Cordelia, "but there was no letter detailing what the deal was. And because you all recognized it as a phone card, you used them as such and completed the survey, and a few minutes ago you heard the ringing and now you're here? How am I doing so far?"

"Uh, yeah, that's about right," a geeky looking adult muttered, staring at the floor rather than Xander.

Right after Xander had found the starting point, IE the only other working phone past the gas station that had been the goal last round, he'd heard some noises outside and found a bunch of vampires throwing themselves onto a young woman in a bright blue dress. Anxious to try out his new skills on some demons that deserved it, he caught them all with Farscape and wrenched their heads off their bodies with but a thought.

After the dust had settled, the young woman uncurled and to his utter amazement, he recognized her. It was none other than his very own girlfriend, Cordelia Chase. A quick question and answer session, where the normally talkative Queen C was strangely quiet and overall unhelpful, he got the basics that he'd just gone over.

On a pure hunch, he'd spread out his senses with Voyager and found a number of other people wandering around the abandoned streets. Leaving a second Voyager cloud with Cordelia, he'd gone out and collected them one by one until there were a dozen people in the church standing around the phone, himself and Cordelia included. The really odd thing, they all had the exact same story.

Somebody was sending out Psyren cards in the mail to people that were stupid enough to use them.

Cordelia surprised him however. He knew she wasn't as dumb as she pretended to be in school and with the gang, and he knew that _she_ knew what it meant to even have that card. So why on Earth would she use it?

"OK, I need to see if there is still anybody out there," he said to the mixed group. "Everybody just stay here, I'll be back as soon as I can. Cordelia, you mind coming with me for a minute here?"

"Uh, sure," she nodded and got to her feet, following along behind him.

Once they were outside and the door closed, he rounded on her and snapped, "All right, what the hell? I mean, seriously Cordy! After what happened with me, you should have known better than to have anything to do with that card! You should have just thrown it out the second you saw it, or even given it to Giles! What the hell is wrong with you?"

The brunette's eyes flashed angrily and she snapped back at him, "What the hell is wrong with me?! What the hell is wrong with _you_?! For starters, I got that card like the day after you found that first one, all right? And secondly, I didn't even use it until the day after you left to go on that trip with the psycho guy."

"Greg, his name is Greg," Xander told her. He stopped himself from saying anything more, taking a step back and trying to calm himself down, running his fingers through his hair and taking deep breaths.

"Still," he finally said, "that's all the more reason to hand the card over to Giles, or even tear it up or something. Why Cordy? Why did you use it at all?

She blushed and looked down at the ground, her heeled feet digging into the dusty sand.

She mumbled something, but he couldn't make it out.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" he asked her.

"I said that I didn't want you to keep secrets from me all right!" she screamed at him. "I love you, you big doofus, and despite your obsession with helping out Buffy and your... friendship with Willow, I know you love me too. But when this Psyren thing started... I already thought you were keeping things from me. Typical Hellmouth paranoia working overtime I guess. Now you, like, had this huge secret that you couldn't even share with them, and couldn't share with me because you might die. I just... I figured that if I used the card, maybe..."

She trailed off, and Xander felt like a total ass by this point, so he gently stepped up to her, lifting her chin with his finger until they were eye-to-eye and quietly whispered to her, "Maybe, what?"

"Maybe," she whispered back, "Maybe if I joined in on this Psyren thing, used the card or whatever, you could share this secret with me, and... And maybe it could be a secret just between the two of us. And maybe it would make me special too. You went from being like... oh, I don't know, the Zeppo of the group and then when the psychic showed up, Greg, you suddenly became... special. Like Buffy. Like Faith, and Willow and Oz, and even Giles. I... I wanted, _want_ to be special too."

"Cordy, I..." Xander didn't know what to say.

"You two going to get a room, or what?" a harsh, sarcastic voice interrupted them.

Xander looked up and glared at the interloper. It was the last guy that he'd picked up. Speaking of which, they hadn't done introductions just yet, and it would be rude in the extreme to suddenly start calling everybody 'Hey You!' and the like.

"Come on," he took Cordelia's hand and lead her back inside, pushing the intruder ahead of them.

Just to be certain though, right before going back inside, he sent out another wide-area Voyager to search for anybody else. So far all he'd seen were a lot more vampires and a couple of strange demons wandering about than last time. Unfortunately, despite the 'long-range' part of his powers, he was still struggling with certain portions of his control and abilities, and he could not yet get Voyager to cover the whole of Sunnydale. In fact his range was normally only about half a mile to three miles in any direction. Oddly though, since coming to Psyren, his power and his control over it had been increasing with every breath he took. Still not enough to cover the whole of Sunnydale, or even get close to the school for that matter, but it was enough for a few blocks. This seemed to be it for the number of players this round.

"Okey-dokey," Xander clapped his hands and smiled at everyone. "My name is Xander Harris, and I am the only person here that has been to Psyren and back and knows what the deal is. So that puts me in charge."

"Oh really?" sarcastic-guy snapped at him. "What makes you think that we'll even listen to a snot-nosed brat like you?"

"Do you want to live?" Xander asked him point blank.

The guy, who looked like your typical high school bully, but grown up and in college, snarled and clenched his fist. He took a step towards Xander and shouted, "You threatening me?!"

"No, but if you cause trouble, I leave you behind to fend for yourself, and I guarantee you, Biff, that you'll be dead before you make it ten minutes on your own," the brown-eyed brunette stated, showing more confidence and strength than Cordelia had ever seen from him before.

The guy immediately backed down, his eyes wide and scared now. "Uh, my name is Terrance, Terry," he mumbled after backing away.

"Thanks for the introduction, Terry," Xander was all smiles again. "This just happens to be my girlfriend, Cordelia. Before you ask, I was mad at her for putting her life in jeopardy by coming here, so nobody get any funny ideas. She's my number two priority. Number one being getting _all of us_ back home safely. Now, let's do the rest of the introductions, all right?"

He pointed to the geeky adult and asked, "You, name and how the hell you wound up in this mess."

"Uhm," the man gulped and started to sweat from being put on the spot all of a sudden. "My-my name is Fredric Grey. I'm just a consultant, I'm not supposed to be here, I just go over data, I swear! I don't know why I'm here! I just—!"

Cordelia slapped him across the face to stop the hysterics before they could start and then paced back over to Xander's side. Xander smiled at his girlfriend and let the incident go unnoticed.

"Next," he grinned, pointing to the jock that had interrupted them earlier.

He sighed and rolled his eyes, grumbling before answering, "My name is Thomas Craig. I'm the CEO of an IT Firm. I don't really care about the supposed reward money, I was actually more interested in the rumors about the secret society of Psyren going to some hidden paradise. I wanted to open up new markets in..."

"OK, thanks, that'll be enough of that," Xander interrupted and pointed at the next guy in line, a pudgy middle-aged man in a business suit.

"My name is Carl, Carl Harper. I'm just some guy, I work at Chase Holding, in middle-management. I got the card and didn't even know what it was until after I used it and had to take the survey," he whimpered.

"I'm Barney Kramer," the thirty-something guy with average looks shrugged, adjusting his leather bomber jacket and dusting off faded denim jeans.

"You can call me... Spaz," a stereotypical punk, complete with mohawk, black leather clothing and chains growled at all of them, "And I'm getting that prize money, no matter what you all do. It's all mine."

"Yeah, whatever, loser," the first of the women Xander had picked up scoffed. She was a stereotypical middle-aged blond California Girl. "I don't really give a shit about all this lovey-dovey bonding crap. I just want to get home already. I'm missing my soaps as it is."

Xander took a deep breath and counted to ten. Then did it again, backwards. Finally he turned to Cordelia, "You handle her. Name?" he pointed at the blond bimbo.

"Veronica," she snarkily replied, over-pronouncing the 'r' in her name.

"Yeah, you handle her," Xander confided in Cordelia, who grimaced, but nodded her agreement.

"Next," he pointed at a mousy girl with brown hair and glasses.

"Carrie," she shrugged and didn't say anything else.

Xander didn't bother asking any more and just pointed, and they each replied with their name.

"Mary," a black-haired pretty girl said.

"Bambi," a blond cheerleader said perkily. She was the last one and from the way she was staring doe-eyed at everything around her, it was clear she still hadn't gotten what was going on just yet.

"You handle her too," Xander whispered to his girlfriend, struggling to keep a smile on his face.

"You couldn't pay, or threaten me enough to do that," she whispered back.

"Yeah, well..." whatever else he was going to say was cut off when the phone started ringing.

Taking a breath, Xander stepped forward and paused just before taking the receiver off the hook. Looking back, he told everyone, "This is going to get a little weird. But I've done this before, so I know what to expect, all right?" Then he picked up the phone and held it to his ear, listening.

Suddenly, the whole room pretty much blanked as a voice started echoing in everyone's heads and a vision filled their minds.

*FLASH!*

_**Those Seeking Psyren Shall Taste Power and Despair!!**_

_**Those Seeking Psyren Shall Taste Power and Despair!!**_

_** Those Who Reach Psyren Shall Be Granted the World!!**_

_** There Is Only One Exit In This Game.**_

_** Those Seeking Psyren... Those Searching For The Exit From This World... Find the Gate!!**_

In the vision, as though through a distant doorway, they saw an image of another phone, this one in an open-air phone booth on the edge of what must have once been a street. Then it ended just as quickly as it began and whatever restraint had kept everybody in line before vanished instantly.

"OK, what the hell was that?!" Terry demanded.

"Gate?! What Gate? What the hell kind of game is this?!" Thomas shouted.

"Oh my god, I am so suing the hell out of whoever is behind this when I get a hold of daddy! Give me that phone, loser!" Veronica screamed and almost lunged at the phone, but Cordelia held her off.

The cheerleader, Bambi and Carrie started crying, Mary and Fredric started hyperventilating, while Terry, Thomas and Veronica felt like shouting and posturing a lot. The rest remained quiet and a little pale.

Cordelia walked across the room and grabbed Xander by the arm. When she had his attention, she hissed at him, "All right Xander, now is not the time to start acting all cryptic and cool like. You'd better start explaining all of this. Please?"

Xander smiled protectively at her and held her hand for a moment and nodded his head. "In a minute Cordy. I have to get the map first," he said.

"Map?!" she screeched in surprise.

"Map, what map?!" Thomas exclaimed.

"Let me see that!" Terry shouted, shoving his way towards Xander.

The Psychic of the Scooby Gang sighed and rolled his eyes, before glancing at his attackers and with a wave of his hand they were both airborne. And stayed that way while he turned back to retrieve the map from the phone's memory. Thankfully there was a digital display attached to this phone as well and the map pulled up instantly.

Except that this time, as Xander read the map his face dropped in shock and grew pale. The starting point was clearly highlight at the lower corner of the screen, but the Gate... the Gate was at the very top in the opposite corner. And in between the two was what he judged to be roughly two to three miles of rugged terrain made out like a maze that had a whole lot of dead ends in it.

Reaching out with his still active Voyager, Xander confirmed that it was actually 2.79 miles, and there were a lot more demons wandering about, not to mention vampires, all traveling in gangs like packs of wolves. He wasn't really sure why he'd had it so easy the last time and so hard this time, but he couldn't help wonder if maybe his last visit through had 'woken up' a lot of the demons in the area that had been in hiding the last time. Or maybe something had happened to Giles.

He was half-tempted to go try and find the old Watcher, get his help in herding these people, but if the demons were this active, then in Xander's mind that meant that whatever had been keeping them in check last time, no longer was. Even if Giles wasn't dead, it was even further to the Library than it was to the Gate, and he couldn't risk these people on a gambit that big.

If all he cared about was himself, he could get him and Cordelia there in minutes using Rise, but that left ten people on their own, probably to get slaughtered by all the demons, or worse turned by the vampire gangs. Sometimes he really hated being a good guy.

"OK," Xander finally spoke, turning around and simultaneously lowering Thomas and Terry to the ground. "Here's the situation. Nemesis Q is the Boss, what he says goes, and if you argue, you die. It sucks, believe me I know it, but that's the way it is. If you want the hard copy of the rules, I'll show you a trick that you can do with your card that I found by accident one day..."

"Alright, enough is enough!" Terry shouted, glaring angrily at the teen.

"I'm not in charge," Xander near-shouted, "but I have done this before. I know how to get home and basically win, all right? That vision thing, that's the clue on how to get to the Gate. We get to the Gate, we get to go home. Anything else can wait after this. Map is still displayed on the phone there, you are all more than welcome to try and make it on your own. I, however, know the way, and as you've already witnessed, I can do some stuff that give me a pretty big advantage when it comes to staying alive. Now, anybody coming with me and Cordelia, train's leaving. Anybody else..." He turned and walked out the door, Cordelia a step behind him.

All the girls, Fredric, Carl, Barney and Spaz followed after without a word. Thomas immediately went to the phone and Terry seemed torn for several minutes before reluctantly following Xander's group.

_One Hour Later_

Spaz was the first one gone. Thomas, they never saw again after leaving the church. Then a vampire-Spaz showed up leading over two dozen vampires to them, and things only got worse from then on out.

"Ohmigawd, ohmigawd, omigawd, omigawd, OH MY GAWD!!" Bambi was screaming as they ran through the streets, dodging vampires left, right and center.

"Would somebody please shut her up!!" Veronica screamed.

A vampire grabbed the blond bimbo and sunk his teeth into her neck. She screamed out in pain.

"Xander!" Cordelia called, witnessing the sight.

Xander, already distracted with keeping all the other vampires off their back, could only spare a single thought towards the situation. A single thought was enough for the vampires heart to suddenly be ripped right out of its chest, immediately dusting it. Cordelia was there to catch the girl and did her best to help slow the bleeding, but it wasn't doing much.

"Don't worry," Cordelia told the girl, carrying her along while holding her wound closed, "You're going to be OK. We'll get home and then you'll be OK."

"No..." came the broken sob from the girl, "I won't..."

She collapsed in Cordelia's arms and the brunette felt she was carrying more dead weight than before. Then something truly horrendous happened. Bambi's eyes glazed over, and Cordelia bit back a sob of her own, knowing that she was dead. Still, she couldn't just leave the poor girls body behind and resolved to take her home, if only for a proper burial, when suddenly the girl's body turned a smoky gray color and her arm came off and began to dissolve in Cordelia's grip.

"Oh god..." she gasped and dropped the body, which fell and went up like so much ash. "OH GOD! OH MY GOD!"

Instantly, Xander was at her side, throwing vampires as far away as he possibly could, finding it took less time than ripping their heads off or their hearts out. He didn't saw a word, just grabbed her and started running, practically dragging her the whole way.

There was already an ash-statue breaking apart on the ground as they ran. Only Barney and Carrie were still with them, Carrie had tears streaming down her face, and Barney had a hard look in his eyes.

"We need to move," the older man stated. "I don't know how your able to do whatever it is you're doing, but can you keep it up?"

Xander, out of breath and sweating, nodded his head. "Its called Psi. That should tell you enough right there. I should have been better prepared for this, but I never imagined there'd be this many vampires still around. There weren't the last time... Should have gotten to Giles."

"Who... who is Giles?" Carrie quietly asked.

"A... friend," Xander answered after healthy pause. "He, somehow, survived. This is the future. I don't know how far into the future, but the last time he was here, I hooked up with him and he helped me get back. Problem is, he usually hangs out around the High School, and it's at the center of this mess. I thought it would be easier just to get to the Gate as quickly as possible, but..."

"It's not your fault," Barney told him. "You've done everything you could and more. Let's just focus on getting the rest of us back home. How much further?"

"Damnit!" Xander suddenly cursed, holding his head lightly.

"Xander, are you OK?" Cordelia asked, concerned.

"Nothing, it's just a headache," he told her absently. "There's at least another three gangs of vamps between us and the Gate. We've got another mile and a half to go. I really thought we'd make better time than this, but..."

"The vampires, yeah," Cordelia griped. She sniffed a bit and wiped her face. "Let's just get out of here, all right. I've got a manicure appointment this afternoon, and after all this I'm definitely going to need it."

Xander grinned for a bit and put a hand of comfort on his girlfriend's shoulder. "That's my Cordy."

"I... I've got to try something here," Xander told them, stepping away for a bit. "I wanted to work it out before getting called back here, but it was all I could do just to get basic control. OK, here... GAH!"

"Xander!" Cordelia screamed and grabbed him as he fell to his knees. Blood was coming from his nose and a single blood-tear fell from his left eye.

"... I'm not doing that again for a while," he finally grumbled, taking huge gasps of air.

"What... what just happened?" Carrie asked, worried.

"I... tried to pick myself up and... well, fly. I can't do it while Voyager is still active. Strain is... too much. And I won't know whats going on around us without it, so I can't risk it. Sorry, but we're walking."

"Well, don't do anything that stupid again," Barney snapped at him. "You're the only one that can use this psi power of yours and right now that's our best defense. Those... vampires you called them? They're just too strong, I couldn't do a thing against them."

"Not your fault. They're not called vampires for nothing," Xander chuckled, still on his knees. The bleeding had stopped at least.

"All right, lifting anything more than my own weight isn't really possible, but I can push or throw stuff. Heavier it is, less far it goes, but I'll have to work on that," he said to himself as he got to his feet. "And when Voyager is active..."

"It would be like trying to lift something when you're already holding something else just as heavy, right?" Barney commented. Xander nodded, agreeing with the comparison.

"OK, the vamps aren't coming any closer, but they aren't moving off either, so we have to either try and barrel through, or find some way to sneak past," Xander said. "And I'm checking now, but it looks like there are a lot more demons around, and most of them are between us and the direction of the school, so getting to Giles is out for the moment. Even if I left you guys and went to get him myself, I don't know if I could get through and back in time."

"You could get through the vampires between us and the Gate though, couldn't you?" Barney asked. "If you went only by yourself, or even carrying your girlfriend in your arms, couldn't you?"

Xander just stared at the older man, not saying anything.

Barney stared back, then smirked and nodded approvingly.

"All right, let's try and find some way to sneak past these monsters," the man said. "Think we can get into the sewers and..."

"No!" both Cordelia and Xander denied immediately.

"What?" both Carrie and Barney were confused by the flat denial.

"Where do you think vampires hide during the day? Or where all the demons hang out for that matter?" Xander pointed out the flaw in that plan. "Plus, tight quarters, almost no light, we're better off fighting fifty seven vampires barehanded than running that kind of gauntlet."

"Good point," Barney shrugged.

"Wait," Carrie suddenly spoke up, "You can... see the... vampires, right?" Xander nodded. "Can you find their blind spots, maybe places we could hide behind and sneak around them right under their noses?"

"Except that vampires have like super hearing and really good smell too," Cordelia pointed out.

Xander took on a thoughtful expression, though what he was actually doing was adjusting Voyager's position and began actively looking for those 'blind spots' and amazingly enough found several that could work.

"Maybe, but... tell you what, we're going to have to move fast. I can do something that should buy us a little bit of time and help hide us, but it won't be perfect and you guys will be just as blind as the vamps. And Cordelia's right, vampires have real good hearing, so any noise will draw them right to us. Even our heartbeats. So we'll have to be super quiet, like ninja."

"Understood," Barney acknowledged.

"OK, here we go. We run first, so hold onto each other," he demonstrated this by taking Cordelia's hand in his own and holding on tight. She then took Carrie's hand, and she took Barney's. Then they started to run for the goal as fast as they could.

_The Gate_

_Half Hour Later_

Xander's plan wasn't much of one, but it worked. Mostly.

Expanding Voyager as far and wide as he could, keeping the psi-cloud as just that, a giant cloud, he made it opaque. Unfortunately, as he'd discovered quite by accident, the darker the cloud became, the more energy it drew into itself, and not just psi-energy, but light and sound too. Putting the raincloud-dark fog over the vampires made it so he _saw_ and _heard_ every single thing inside and around that cloud like his ears were right next to speakers put on Max and his eyes were a millimeter away from it all at once. He'd nearly collapsed from the intensity of it, but like he'd told Giles, it was more like vivid daydreams than sensory input. Still, an over intensive mental image can be more than distracting enough in a situation like this.

The vampires, however, were all blinded and near-deaf inside the cloud and Xander knew _exactly_ where to step and where not to in order to get past them. Plus, the cloud moved with Xander, so while any vampires or demons outside the cloud would be confused at seeing it move around like it did, they wouldn't be able to find them inside of it once they too were inside. They made it almost the whole way before Xander finally gave out, the headache that had been growing ever since he'd tried flying getting to be too much, even for him.

Thankfully, they were past all the vampire gangs and were literally on the street where the Gate was when the dark cloud that had been hiding them finally collapsed and Xander with it.

"Xander!" Cordelia cried out, trying to pick up her boyfriend. The could see the phone just a hundred yards away, but they knew that the monsters behind them were closer. "Come on! You've got to get up!"

"I... I... I..." Xander had a nosebleed almost as bad as the night his powers had been unlocked, and his whole body felt light and disoriented. "Go! I... I'll be right behind... you..."

Barney took one look at the young man and scoffed. "Yeah, right," he said, then leaned down and picked the teen up by the arm and started half-carrying him to the Gate. Cordelia took the other side.

"No, we... we don't have time. I'm... I'm out. Shouldn't have used... so much... psi..." Xander gasped out painfully through labored breaths.

"I'm not leaving you behind," Cordelia snapped at him angrily. "Do you have any idea what Buffy would do to me? Or Willow? Even I'm not deluded enough to try pissing off that..."

"There they are!" a voice shouted from behind them.

"Move... faster..." Xander gasped, trying to help them in moving him. Carrie raced on ahead.

"No! Wait!" Cordelia suddenly called to her.

"Aaahhhh!" A vampire had climbed the roof of one of the still standing buildings and jumped from it onto the young girl. She only had time to scream once before it was at her throat.

"GO!" Xander shouted and practically shoved Barney, getting some of his strength back now that he wasn't constantly using psi. Greg had warned him about using Psi for too long or too often. Little bits were OK here and there, soft strain was OK too so long as he didn't overdo it and slept every once in a while. Doing too much at one time or trying to do something big while already doing a lot of other stuff lead to... complications. Like trying to gun an engine that you were already cruising at a high speed when going up a hill.

Barney tackled the vampire and pulled him off Carrie, who scrambled to her feet, tears and blood running down her body. Xander tried to get Cordy to go help her, but she wouldn't leave him. Seeing that Barney was now the one in trouble, the Psychic Scooby took a deep breath, knowing that he was pushing himself as it was, and reached out his hand and his thoughts. The vampire was suddenly lifted seven feet in the air by his head and remained there, until Xander closed his fist and there was a loud cracking sound and the floating vampire was suddenly doing a late impression of Ms. French (substitute French Teacher that was actually a giant preying mantis demon) with its neck now capable of 360 degree rotation. It vanished into dust while still mid-air.

The man got back to his feet, checked on Carrie and confirmed that none of her arteries had been nicked, it was just a flesh wound thankfully, but unless they got her to a hospital, she wouldn't be making it. He hurried back to help Xander and Cordelia and they double-timed it to the phone now.

"I... I'm done," Xander gasped as they walked on. "I can't... I can't use psi anymore. Not without some, _*swallow*gasp*_, some major rest. Sorry."

"Don't be," Barney told him. "You saved my life. The least I can do is make sure you live through this."

"It's not over yet," Cordelia moaned. She didn't need to look to know that the vampire gangs were gaining on them.

"How did you see him?" Carrie asked her suddenly, though she kept her voice quiet.

"Huh?" Cordelia blinked, confused.

"The... the monster, the vampire, that jumped me," Carrie elaborated. "How did you see him? You called out, but I..."

"I don't know," Cordelia replied honestly. "I just... I just felt that something bad was gonna happen."

"Heh, maybe your getting your own psychic powers," Barney joked.

"Nah," Xander shook his head and immediately regretted it. "It takes six hours for that to happen. We... god. We've only been here less than three. And I'm the only one with nosebleeds. That's kind of how it works. Come to Psyren, breathe the atmosphere, or whatever is in it, and six hours later, you get a nosebleed and a fever and come morning you've got psychic powers."

"Freaky," Barney shuddered.

"Can't wait," Cordelia sarcastically remarked.

"Uh, guys..." Carrie had stopped and was pointing at their destination, which was only a dozen or so meters right in front of them. But so was a giant turtle-like spine-covered black and red demon the size of a school bus with six legs and a scorpion tale.

"Not that I'm ungrateful, Xander," Barney grumbled, "but I'm suddenly wishing you hadn't wasted all your psi on saving me a few minutes ago."

"Funny, the Hellmouth wasn't out to get me like this the last time I came here," Xander pouted.

"Wh-what happens if that thing destroys the phone?" Carrie stuttered.

Xander didn't answer, and that was answer enough.

"...Risk it," he grunted and started hobbling forward again, taking Cordelia and Barney with him. "Gotta risk it. I don't even want to guess how long until the next round starts or where in Sunnydale the starting point would be when it does. We're going home now!"

"..." they all just stared at him as he struggled to move forward, but his body was giving out.

Before they could say or do anything else, however, there was a familiar, if out of place, noise coming from behind them. The sound of a car going petal to the metal. Looking around, they saw that's exactly what it was, and _Thomas_ of all people was behind the wheel. They quickly dove out of the way as the man drove the car past them on the street, then dove out of the car just as the engine revved even higher and headed straight for the turtle-like demon, where it hit, crashed, and exploded on contact.

"Huh," Xander tried to laugh, "I thought that only happened in movies."

"After fighting vampires, demons, and saving the world beside an honest-to-god teenage girl superhero, you say something like that?" Cordelia snapped at him. "Practically everything in our lives since she came to town is something you'd only see in movies and TV horror shows!"

"Good point," Xander shrugged, and they resumed half-carrying him to the phone as Thomas approached from the other way.

"Thought we wouldn't see you again. Like, ever," Cordelia snipped at the man. "How'd you make the car explode anyway?

"I'm resourceful. Oh, and there was a grenade in the glove box," the arrogant jerk smirked at her. Then he looked over at Xander and asked, "What happened to you? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of hero or something?"

"I had a bad day," the exhausted and bloody psychic tiredly retorted.

"I'll say," a sarcastic voice said from behind them.

Gulping nervously, they all turned around and saw a vamped out Spaz standing there. Thankfully alone, but there was no guarantee of other dangers hidden amidst the debris.

"What the hell?" Thomas exclaimed. "What happened to him?"

"Not really sure, but I feel great," the punk-vampire crowed.

"He got turned... into a vampire," Xander told them.

All those that didn't know turned to stare at him in shock, even Spaz. There were no denials or calling him crazy stuff going on, but then again after coming to Psyren, being told vampires are real isn't really much of a shocker by comparison.

"So, now what?" Barney had to ask, while he kept holding Xander upright.

"Now?" Xander sighed and looked around at everyone. Less than half the people that started this 'round' were still alive, but they were here at the goal and Spaz wasn't going feral on them, so maybe they could hold off on staking him until they got back to the past. Yeah, right.

"Now, either Spaz attacks us and tries to kill us, or we all go home and he probably tries to kill us when we get back home, because if I know one thing about vampires, its the hunger always gets them in the end. I'm... useless, I got nothing left," he hung his head, feeling too tired to have much hope.

"Xander..." Cordelia almost cried, but then her own temper flared and she turned to the vampire and pulled a stake out of her jacket pocket, which she'd forgotten she even had there until now.

"That's it I'm outta here!" Thomas cried out, sounding terrified and dove for the phone. The second he picked it up and put it to his ear, he vanished on the spot.

"So that's what it looks like," Xander laughed.

"Stake through the heart, right?" Barney whispered.

"Huh? Yeah," Xander said, confused.

"GO!" he suddenly shouted and threw Xander bodily towards the girls and the phone, while grabbing the stake out of Cordelia's hands. He then dove on top of Spaz and drove the stake home. Right as Spaz vanished into dust, about a half dozen other vampires turned the corner onto the street.

"Shit," Barney cursed as he realized he'd lost the wooden stake.

"BARNEY!" Carrie ran to help him up while Cordelia held the phone to Xander's ear. He vanished.

"COME ON!" she screamed, holding the phone again. "COME ON YOU TWO! YOU CAN MAKE IT! YOU CAN make... it... oh god!"

She turned away and squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could block out the sounds and the screams as she put the phone to her ear. She never saw the vampiric talons swipe through the space her head had been in only microseconds before. She did cry tears for as long as her nose bled that night when she got home.

_Earth_

_Residence of Thomas Craig_

_One Hour Later_

Thomas slammed the door to his apartment/condo shut and locked everything. Then, just to be certain, he activated the security system and and even closed all the blinds on all the windows. When he was finally assured of his privacy, he raced to his computer and turned it on. He also got out a tape recorder and his digital video camera and set up his webcam and computer microphone.

He was going to make millions off of this.

Rumors about Psyren had been floating around the net and occult circles for a couple of years now, ironically starting in Japan of all places. It was also in Japan where the reward was being offered of five hundred million yen for any and all information on Psyren.

Besides just that, Thomas planned on selling his story to everyone that would listen, making his a household name synonymous with Psyren's. So what if Psyren was actually some apocalyptic future filled with demons, vampires and whatever? It was a mystery and he was about to blow it wide open. And, if that kid was right about getting psychic powers, all the better, right?

Setting everything to record, he looked into the cameras an began to speak. He wasn't quite ready to post this live, he wanted to get the message _just right_, then he would post it after editing it a bit. When he was finally ready, he looked into the recording devices and hit 'Record' on all of them.

"Hello," he said semi-seriously, unable to keep the grin off his face from the thought of five million dollars being his, "My name is Thomas Craig, CEO and owner of B.I..Com Incorporated, operator of the money-making blog site; www.B.I..com. We appreciate your donations."

He took a deep breath and prepared to speak the truth, ignoring the headache and odd pains he was feeling throughout his body. The kid had told him that he'd get a nosebleed and a fever and then psychic powers, so he figured the pain was just part of it.

"My friends, I have made an important discovery tonight. We've all heard the rumors, and the mystique and the whole urban legend about Psyren. Until famous Japanese psychic Elmore Tenjuin suddenly offered a five hundred million yen, that's _five_ _million_ in US Currency, reward for any and all genuine information regarding Psyren, nobody really gave a damn. So what if a few dozen people disappeared here and there and anybody talking about Psyren was abnormally hush-hush about it? That sort of thing happens a million times a day, every day since the beginning of time. Nevertheless, that the secret has remained secret for so long makes it a secret all the more worth discovering. A secret," he leaned in closer to the webcam, "that I have discovered. Yes, you heard it right, I know the secret of Psyren and I... I'm... I'm about to... tell you... what it... is...?"

Thomas shook his head, trying to get over the sudden all-consuming pain he was feeling. He looked back at the camera, and tried to continue, but a fresh wave of raw pain swamped him and he almost collapsed out of his chair. He glanced at his image on the webcam footage and noticed he looked really pale. Then he rolled his eyes when a shooting pain echoed throughout his entire body and he cried out from the stress.

"What... what's happening... to... me?" he gasped. "I... I just, I just want the money, that's all..."

Another shot of pain went through him and when he could see enough past it to look around, he saw a tall creature that sort of resembled a man dressed up in some weird tribal bird costume. He didn't know how or why, but he knew that whatever was behind the costume was looking right at him.

"Puh-please!" he reached out, the whole scene captured by all the recording devices, though the costumed man wasn't in the shot. "Please! I don't want to die! I-I j-just w-want t-to... NOOOOOO—*!"

Still recording, the digital camera, tape recorder, webcam, and even security system observed silently and objectively as Thomas Craig turned an ashy-gray color, and then into an ash statue of himself, falling to pieces at every slightest vibration until there was just one big pile of dust where there was once a human being. All of the recording devices continued to record the empty room until they finally ran out of power, or tape, and the computer and security system continued on without interruption until a few days later when the power was cut off due to the electric bill not being paid. When the building owner did not receive rent at the start of the next month, he just locked and sealed the apartment, planning on renting it out at the next opportunity, only to go out of business himself and thus the apartment remained sealed and untouched forevermore. Thomas Craig was reported missing, but in Sunnydale that's nothing new and the report was buried among hundreds of others. If anybody would have cared to ask any questions, excuses would have been made until the fact that he was an "IT Firm CEO" came to light and assumptions made that he skipped town to some foreign country after cheating his company out of money. Nobody ever asked any questions, and nobody ever looked for Thomas Craig, and nobody ever associated his disappearance to Psyren either.

Nemesis Q observed the pile of dust that had been a player willing to intentionally break the rules. Then vanished without a sound nor trace, not that anybody would ever look for some there.

To Be Continued...

AN: All the "Red Shirt" characters, even their names, are completely fictional and have no basis in real life or other sources of fiction. They're just random names assigned to random descriptions in the story and will not be returning to the story at all ever. If you want to use them for your own stories... go right ahead, I hold no real attachment to them, all I ask is that my name be mentioned somewhere in a 'Note' in either said story or at least on your Author's Page. Beyond that, have at them.

AN2: Hey, anybody want to guess what Cordelia's psychic power(s) is going to be? Go ahead, guess!


	4. Visions

Visions:

_Earth_

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Sunnydale High Library_

_One Week Later_

She walked into the library. Buffy and Faith were training, Willow was at the table with her computer, Giles standing with a book in his hand, and then there was Xander. He stood in the exact center of the library, floating a meter off the ground, with the ground falling away to reveal the Hellmouth demon, which had Psyren cards in all of its mouths and tentacles. Floating in the air right next to him was the tall, robed bird-like costumed character that she _knew_ was Nemesis Q, the creator and instigator of the Psyren "game" and the one that had probably sent her that Psyren card in the mail. Both Xander and Q looked over at her, and together put their fingers to their mouths and 'shh'ed her.

Then she blinked and she was just outside the double doors to the Library, about to go in. Taking a breath and shaking her head, Cordelia pushed the doors open and walked in... and then froze on the spot. Everyone was doing _exactly_ what she'd just seen them doing, down to the last movement of the hair on their heads. Buffy and Faith were training, going through the _exact_ same motions, Willow was on the computer, and Giles was standing with the exact same book in his hand, turning to the same page. It was _deja__vu_ or something!

Except for Xander.

He was standing in the middle of the library floor, but he was pacing back and forth and was thankfully by himself. He was also dressed in his more normal clothes of baggy pants and loose multi-colored sweatshirt. The moment he saw her though, he dashed forward, grabbed her and dragged her back out of the Library.

"Hey! Xander! What do you...?" she tried to protest, but pulled something out of his back pocket before she could really say or do anything else.

The moment she saw the newspaper, her awareness of the surroundings, normal sight, hearing and even sense of touch faded into the background as she saw something in her minds eye that overpowered everything else. The jerk that had come back with them from Psyren, Tom-something, was sitting at a computer, in front of a punch of cameras, and then Nemesis Q showed up and he turned to dust. Thomas that is.

Then it was over and she was looking at a page six article of the local newspaper about a relatively well-known businessman blogger had vanished and it was assumed he'd left the country for some illicit reason or another. There was no picture, just a single, small, mention of his name. That was it.

"He's dead," she said before Xander could really tell her.

He just nodded and put the newspaper away.

"Remember what he'd said?" he asked her as they walked out of the school building to the area hidden behind the gym. "He wanted to turn Psyren into some kind of business opportunity. At the very least he wanted to cash in on that reward money about any information regarding Psyren. I know firsthand what it feels like when you try to break the rules by telling others about Psyren. It felt like I was dying or something. If Mr. IT CEO went too far, or kept pushing without backing off... yeah, Nemesis Q would kill him. Cordy... Have you...?"

"Tried to tell anyone?" she guessed, and he just nodded. She shook her head no. "I'm not that stupid, and as you can obviously see, I'm not collapsing in pain or whatever. Hey, wait a minute, how come we aren't in pain talking about Psyren _now_?"

"Because we're both players now," he told her mournfully.

"Oh," she looked down at that.

"We really need to come up with a different name for that," she added after a beat or two.

"Yeah, well, I've had other things on my mind," he grinned sarcastically at her.

"So what do we do about...?" she silently gestured to the newspaper in his pocket.

Xander just shrugged and looked up to the sky, then answered, "Nothing."

"Nothing?!" she repeated, shocked.

He shrugged again and asked in return, "What can we do? Nemesis Q doesn't strike me as the sort of... creature to accept take backs, and we both know he's as good as dead, if not already. He was a jerk, besides. And everybody already thinks he's just left the country or whatever. What good would it do if people knew he'd been killed because of... because of Psyren?"

Cordelia frowned, not liking the facts, but she had to admit the truth. There really wasn't anything they could do about it besides. "So... what do we do?" she finally asked.

He shrugged and sighed. "We show the others your card and let them come to their own conclusions. That's all we really can do. Greg is coming back this weekend to help me better develop my control over my abilities, maybe teach me a few new tricks. I'll see about him teaching you the basics at the same time."

"Well gee, don't do me any favors or anything!" she suddenly snapped at him and stormed off in a huff.

Xander glowered and squinted at his girlfriend stalking away from him. He glanced around a bit, and then in the next second, he was standing right in front of her, over ten feet away from where he last stood. She startled, but quickly got herself under control and continued glaring at him.

"I'm not exactly qualified to teach anyone much of anything Cordy," he said softly to her. "I think the last round proved that well enough."

Her breath caught and she had to struggle not to start crying all of a sudden.

"But right now," he continued before she could say or do anything else, "we've got to let the others know. I actually considered not telling anybody anything, for all of five seconds. If I hadn't, then I never would have been introduced to Greg, never would have learned how to control my powers, and probably would have been killed or something by now. Things like whether or not we're still dating, which you're kind of broadcasting like a big telepathic neon sign right now, isn't really as important as it is to get you trained in controlling your new powers and making sure the others know you're involved with Psyren now too. At the very least so they can cover for you like you guys covered for me a couple weeks ago, OK?"

For a minute there, Xander thought Cordelia might raise a fuss or start an argument. Then she finally relented and followed him back to the Library without another word being said.

They returned without anybody really noticing they'd left in the first place, but it was also understandable. After all, besides Willow and Oz, Xander and Cordelia were the only other established couple of the group, so they were allowed to go off on their own now and again.

"Hey, uh, guys!" Xander called to them, standing himself and Cordelia at the center of the room.

Buffy and Faith stopped their sparring, Giles put his book away and Willow shut down the computer before all turning their attention to the couple. Apparently Oz had come in while they'd been out and was now standing just behind Willow a hand on her shoulder, so he also gave them his attention.

"Show them Cordy," he whispered, putting his hand comfortingly at his girlfriend's lower back in show of silent support. She half-glared, half-pouted at him, but did as she was bid and pulled something out of her purse. The whole room, with only one or two exceptions, gasped in shock when they saw the bright red Psyren card the girl was holding. To prove it wasn't just his own, Xander pulled out his own and held it up next to Cordelia's. The gang just stared in open-mouthed shock at the two Psyren cards side-by-side.

"Oh... dear..." Giles muttered.

"Cordelia... you...?" Buffy trailed off when the brunette merely nodded her head in reply.

"Damn," Faith cursed, shaking her head in disbelief.

Oz didn't say anything, but his frown said enough by itself.

"So you got powers now too, huh?" Faith asked the cheerleader to break the silence of the room.

Cordelia just shrugged, then was about to say something when suddenly her entire perspective shifted.

_It was night. The Library was closed and dark save for the light in Giles' office and a lamp on the table. Under the lamp was a large crystal with a crack running down the middle of it. Buffy was sitting and staring at the crystal, Giles right behind her. She wasn't moving, not even blinking, and her breathing was shallow and calm. Giles pulled out a needle from a case and stuck it into Buffy's arm, pouring the entire contents into the Slayer's body. Before Cordelia's eyes, Buffy went from being her typical superhero Slayer self, and turned into a little girl that looked fourteen or fifteen years old at the most, and it was clear she had no slayer powers at all._

"WHAT THE HELL?!!" Cordelia suddenly screamed and jumped back.

"Cordy, whats wrong?" Xander shouted.

She looked at him, wild-eyed and panicked. A quick glance around showed that it was still daytime, the sunlight shining in through the windows making the whole place bright. Buffy was her normal buff self, and everybody else was there, looking at her confused and concerned, and Giles was dressed casually rather than in the tweed suit she'd only just seen him in.

"Giles!" she pointed an accusatory finger at the man, "You... he... you did something to Buffy! Or, you will do something? I'm not sure what, but I know what I just saw!"

"Excuse me?" Giles was affronted at the very idea that he would ever do anything to Buffy.

"Cordy," Xander was suddenly there, holding her head so she would focus only on him, "Cor, look at me. Tell me, what did you see? It's important, all right?"

"Uh, I..." she gulped and nodded her head and calmed down. "I saw Buffy and Giles. Buffy was like staring at a huge crystal or something, and then Giles stuck a needle in her and pumped her full of drugs!"

"WHAT?!" Buffy screamed, and the others weren't far from doing the same.

Giles, on the other hand, paled significantly, as he recognized all too well what that scene represented.

"Giles!" the blond shouted at her Watcher, "Explain!"

"I, I, well, you see, I..." he stammered and started cleaning his glasses with a vengeance.

"Cordy," Xander was still speaking to his girlfriend, but he'd let her go by now, "I need you to focus here, all right? Tell me exactly what you saw, please."

"I... I can't, not like that," she grumbled. "It, it's like some kind of vivid day dream. I remember the pieces clear as anything, but when I try to describe it, or focus on it, it... it hurts!" she started rubbing her head like she had a headache.

Xander blinked and stepped back.

"My word," Giles gasped. "True Visions. Cordelia... you, you're a seer!"

"Great, now how do we make it stop, and what's with you giving Buffy drugs anyway?" she shouted back at him. He flushed and avoided everyone's glare in response to that.

"I'm going to try something here," Xander announced. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "Cordy, try not to panic, and please don't fight me here. I swear, I'm _only_ going to look for the vision that you just had and nothing more. You trust me?"

Unsure about what he was talking about, she half-shrugged and then nodded her head, meeting his eyes to show that she did indeed trust him.

"All right, here we go," he held out his right hand and whispered loud enough for them to hear, "_Vygr_."

Nobody else saw a thing, but Cordelia's eyes went wide as she saw a white, transparent _energy cloud_ emerge from Xander's hand and float over to her. She almost backed away, but a look from Xander gave her pause. He wasn't going to hurt her, or violate her in any way. The moment she wanted him to stop, he'd stop, no questions asked. She saw it in his eyes, and knowing that gave her the courage to continue, so she gave him a nod to continue and then the next thing she knew, the cloud was on her and she was seeing everything through a hazy white film.

From Xander's perspective, it was almost the same as when he'd first been developing his trance power.

Unlike with his Burst powers, which was like using a part of his body, Trance was entirely about the mind. Like Voyager, a daydream-like vision filled his minds eye on what Vygr was 'seeing', but at the same time a great deal more information was filling his head than just some visuals. Everything was filled or associated with emotion, memory, and random thought impressions, and it required greater concentration.

He could 'see' the shining lights that were Buffy, Faith, Willow, Giles and Oz. And then there was Cordelia. He couldn't be sure if it was just how close he was to her physically, or something else, but her form, roughly an aura of emotion, thought and depth shaped identically to her physical body, was shinning much brighter than the others. Not that she had anything extra with her, just that there seemed to be a shade over all the others. Like comparing a room lamp with an uncovered light bulb.

And then Vygr made contact and he had a lot more to focus on than his own perception.

As the cloud settled over the glowing figure that was Cordelia, Xander's mind connected to hers in a way that was indescribable. The only way to truly understand it would be to experience it for oneself, and even then it couldn't be accurately described.

Xander kept to his promise though, focusing only on the Vision she'd just had, and it was easy to do as the experience was at the forefront of her mind. Xander, mentally speaking, entered the Vision and watched it over and over again, looking at all of the details that could have easily been passed over at just a glance. He did this, knowing that Cordelia would be reliving the memory over and over again the same as him, and this felt significant. She needed to remember every possible detail of this Vision, if only to more easily recall it in the future. Finally, he finished and only taking a last look around to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong, he withdrew Vygr and left Cordelia's mind.

As soon as he came out of his Trance, Xander turned angrily on Giles and demanded, "What the hell is the Cruciamentum? And why the hell would you be giving Buffy drugs in the first place?"

If Giles could have fallen unconscious or had the earth swallow him up at that moment he would have. Hell, he'd even take an inopportune visit from Principal Snyder by this point. But clearly that wasn't going to happen. Taking a deep breath, Giles began to explain.

"The, eh, Cruciamentum is a, well a test," he told them. "Given to the Slayer on her eighteenth birthday by... her Watcher, under the guidance of the Watcher's Council. She is stripped of her powers via a specialized drug, which is a combination of..."

"They'll WHAT?!" Buffy screamed, while Faith frowned, clenching her fists. Everyone else was plenty pissed in their own rights.

"Giles..." Xander said in warning.

"I... received a package from the Council just this morning," he admitted. "I haven't opened it yet."

"Bit early, aren't they?" Cordelia snarkily observed.

"A month and a half," Xander pointed out. "How long does it take the drug to take effect?"

Giles cringed, but he knew what was right here. "Three to six weeks," he answered.

"GILES!" Buffy shouted, angrier than anyone could remember seeing her since she'd come back. Then her anger broke and she was suddenly near-tears. "How could you?"

"Buffy I," he tried to explain, but she shook her head, the tears already spilling out.

"I don't know you anymore," she then ran out of the room. Willow paused, looking back and forth between Giles, Xander, and the exiting Buffy. Xander just nodded his head and his bestest friend ran off after their best friend to help her through this.

"As much of an issue as this is," Xander broke the silence once the two had left, "That's not why we're here. Cordelia's been exposed to Psyren. We need to call Greg and he needs to show her the basics. I have a few other questions for him myself, but I don't have his number. I'll be sure to correct that after this, but Giles? We're not done with this. Not by a long shot."

"I... understand," The Englishman nodded his head, hiding his shame and knowing that he had a great deal to make up for after this. Not that he'd done anything, but that he even had the package would be enough to lose some of the trust they all had in him. He'd do anything to regain that trust. Especially over something like this.

"Greg?" Xander prompted, when it looked like the man wasn't going to move.

"Of course, right away," he agreed and went to call his psychic friend.

"How come stuff's not going flying everywhere?" Faith asked after the Watcher had left.

Xander shrugged, and Cordelia just glared at the Boston Slayer, crossing her arms huffily beneath her larger cleavage.

"I don't get visions of the future," he said, "And from what I've been able to tell from my look in her head, Cordelia's been having minor visions all morning, pretty much since she woke up, I'd guess."

Her blush and inability to look him in the eye at that moment was answer enough in those regards.

"Come to think of it, Greg may not be as much of a help to you as he was to me, Cordelia," he said to her after a brief silence.

She looked up sharply at him. "What's that supposed to mean? He's a psychic, isn't he?"

"Well, yes, but he's a Burst-Balance-type. Like me. He has above average control of his active abilities, and with Trance and Rise, he balances it out so neither skill is heavily relied upon. Of course, I'm still learning, and we just focused the most on Burst during my training, and he taught me enough in Trance and Rise to balance what I'd learned of Burst."

"What is that again?" she asked.

Xander sighed and sat down, in mid-air. At their looks, he smirked and said, "I've been practicing."

"Anyway, Cordy, quick refresher, Burst is any ability that affects the physical world around you. Rise is using psi to boost your body to superhuman levels. Trance is any psychic ability having to do with the mind or mental abilities, common examples being telepathy, mind-reading, and apparently, psychic visions. Visions are strictly in the Trance area. Me? I was throwing stuff around with psychokinesis by pure instinct. You, you're having visions of the future, Cordy. Safe bet that you'll be a Trance-type."

"Oh," she acknowledged, and then sat heavily down at the table.

"Still doesn't explain why stuff ain't going flying," Faith commented.

Xander shrugged while sitting on his 'invisible chair' and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, it kind of is. Cordelia's powers are going on raw instinct, same as mine were. Except instead of psychokinesis, throwing stuff around," he added at the blank looks he got, "she has uncontrollable visions of the future. I mean she can't even control when she has them. So yeah, stuff isn't going flying, but it doesn't change that you need to get trained, same as I was Cordy."

"Yeah, I'm all for not having vertigo every five minutes from a vision," she commented, rubbing her temples to alleviate the phantom pains she was experiencing.

"Greg said that he can come by tomorrow afternoon, after school," Giles said upon re-entering the Library. "And he told me to give you this, though I assure you I was about to. It's Gregory's contact information. And for the record, Xander, the package I received this morning," he held up the brown-paper wrapped box. "If you would be so kind?"

Xander smirked and nodded. Stepping 'down' off his 'invisible chair', he extended his hand towards the box, which instantly lifted itself from the Watcher's hands and floated in front of all of them.

"Might as well get some practice in before Greg shows up," he said with a smile, before he slowly began to make a fist with his outstretched hand. With each millimeter his hand closed, the package was crushed more and more until finally it was a compacted mess no bigger than a marble. A small marble.

"Yes, thank you then," Giles nodded his head. "I suppose someone should try and find Buffy?"

"Willow's already taken care of that," Xander told him rather coldly. "You've got someone else to explain yourself to first," he pointed towards Faith, who was still frowning with clenched fists at her side.

"Ah, yes, well I suppose I do at that, don't I?" Giles cleaned his glasses once more rather quickly. "Uh, Faith, if you wouldn't mind, might we speak for a few moments?"

She looked the Watcher over briefly, and then back at the two psychics standing there. "Not alone. Nothing against you G-Man, but this is twice in as many months that I've been screwed over by the Watchers. I'm not about to be left alone with one after knowing you can take away my powers."

Giles nodded, face flushed with embarrassment and frustrated anger. Not at Faith, but rather his employers. He could not believe the situation they had put him into! No wonder these children didn't trust him right now. After this, they honestly had no reason to!

"I understand, and I have no objection. Xander, Cordelia, if you have some place else to be, I would ask that you..." he began to say, but Xander interrupted him.

"I've got no where else than I'd rather be, than with my good buddy Faith," he said exaggeratedly, putting his arm around Faith's shoulders, and keeping one hand in Cordelia's. "Besides, I'm kind of curious about the explanation a bit myself."

"Yes, well," Giles started scrubbing his glasses all over again, "what would you like to know?

_Sunnydale Outskirts_

_Night_

The black Dodge Desoto with black painted windows rolled into town, well, more like careened out of control until it slammed into the 'Welcome To Sunnydale' sign and then stopped against the tree behind it. Moments after this rather spectacular crash, the driver's side door opened and a very, very, _very_ drunk Spike, aka William 'the Bloody', rolled out and just lay on the ground, giggling like a drunk.

"Home sweet... home," he cackles drunkenly, and then passed out, the bottle still in his hand.

_Sunnydale High_

_Next Day_

"So what's it like?" Willow bubbled as she and Cordelia walked down the hall to their next class.

"Annoying," the teen queen said to the computer geek princess. "It's like having constant déjà vu and hearing everything twice. Sometimes I even get to have the same conversation over and over again."

"Huh?" Willow asked as she came around the corner. Cordelia looked around and noticed she was at the start of hallway, next to the Library, and it was three minutes earlier.

"GAH!" she screamed, throwing her books to the ground. "Not again!"

"Hey, Cordelia," Willow spoke as she came around the corner in front of the Library, "Are you OK?" She'd noticed the teen queen just standing there staring off into space, and there were only a few minutes left before class started.

"Huh?" Cordelia snapped out of the series of visions she'd just gone through. Oddly enough, about what was just about to happen. "Willow? Uh... how long have I been standing here?"

"I'm... not sure, I just got here myself," the redhead admitted.

"Great," Cordelia mumbled and stalked down the hall, hoping to actually get to her next class this time.

"Cordelia, are you OK?" Willow repeated, but this time she really repeated herself. Somehow, the brunette psychic could tell the difference all of a sudden.

"Not really," she said.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Not really," Cordelia said again.

"So..." Willow reached for some topic of conversation that might be considered safe. Instead, she just asked the first thing that came to mind, "What's it like?"

Cordelia would have screamed to the heavens and ripped off the head of her boyfriend's best friend is she could have. Instead, she just sighed and finished the answer she gave in her 'vision' of a few minutes prior. "It's like having constant déjà vu and hearing everything twice. Sometimes I even get to have the same conversation over and over and _over_ again. It's _really_ annoying!"

"Oh, I, uh, I'm sorry to hear that," Willow stuttered, falling back into old patterns in dealing with the teen queen of the school.

Cordelia let out an even more exasperated sigh and turned around, feeling bad about hurting the other girl's feelings, but just as she faced the redhead fully, she was caught up in another vision, except this one was more... shall we say active? Time hadn't stopped, and she wasn't catatonic to the world for starters, but she knew all the same that she was having a vision because when she turned to face Willow, she didn't see the petite elfin computer geek with attractively neck-length short hair and a growing sense of confidence. No, she saw a pale, veiny, waist-length black haired dominatrix nightmare with solid black eyes, black lipstick, black nail polish, and an aura of evil power that put Darth Vader to shame.

"Cordelia?" Willow's normal voice and natural concern came from the monstrosity's mouth, which smirked cruelly and did not match _at all_ with the kind and concerned voice coming from her black lips.

Then, as the brunette psychic watched on with ever-widening eyes, the black-haired girl morphed into another Willow, older than normal, but she had short red hair, like really short, above the ears short. She also smirked confidently, but on her it looked cool, while the veiny Willow was creepy. She was also dressed nicely, in things Cordelia would even wear. Where the first Willow held an air of cruelty and evil, this one held a sense of openness and power. It was kind of cool, if it wasn't so freaky that is.

"Uh, Cordelia," cool-Willow asked, showing the concern in her voice, but also a sureness of herself and her identity, "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Even as she said these words, Cordelia could only watch as another girl suddenly approached and was beside this cool, older Willow. The only thing that she really noticed about this new girl was that she was blond, dressed in earth tones, and carried the same aura of shyness that Willow had once upon a time. Then she and Willow embraced one another in a full open-mouth, soul searing kiss that short-circuited the psychic's brain and after that she could only stare.

"Cordelia!" Willow shook the girl, who was staring strangely at her and had been for half a minute or so.

"Huh? Whu—!" Cordelia jumped and looked around before looking back at Willow, who thankfully was normal and dressed as she was supposed to be. "Whoa."

"Are, are you... I mean, should we go back to the Library, or the n-nurse's office?" she offered.

Cordelia gulped and shook her head. "No, I-I think I'll be OK, it's just... Whoa."

"What? What is it? You had a vision," Willow said, "Was it about me?"

"Uh, yeah, you could, say that, I guess," she answered hesitantly. They continued on towards class.

"Well?" Willow asked expectantly.

"Stop using magic," she said instantly.

"Wh-what?" Willow was surprised, not having expected that for an answer.

Cordelia blinked and said the first things that came to mind, "If you continue on your current path, you'll inevitably fall into the Dark Arts and start using magic that you're not ready for, and quite frankly should never use at all. Period."

"B-but, but I..." the girl stammered.

"Or, since you obviously don't want to stop cold turkey, only use magic when you absolutely have no other option. If there is even a single alternative to using magic, no matter the situation, use it before resorting to magic. Otherwise, I think you're gonna turn evil or something. And I mean evil as in S-L-A-Y-E-R kind of evil that just plain needs to be put down, no questions asked."

Willow blinked and gulped, taking Cordelia's warning as seriously as anything she ever had before. Maybe moreso, as she knew and believed that Cordelia was a true psychic and her reactions were too honest to be anything but the truth. Besides, Cordelia had always been a very blunt, speak-whatever-she's-thinking kind of person for as long as Willow had known her.

"Oh, and I think you're kinda gay," Cordelia said to her just as they reached their classroom door, and walked right in, leaving Willow standing there, gaping like a fish.

"I'm WHAT?!" she screamed out loud.

_Library_

_After School_

Greg had come over as soon as he could after Giles had called. One or two simple questions was enough to convince him that Cordelia could no easier talk about how she got her powers than Xander could. One 'Nemesis Q Warning' was _more_ than enough for the young woman.

Surprisingly, Xander was the first one Greg spoke to about the situation, Giles just given a cursory greeting before all attention turned towards Cordelia and her new abilities. Unfortunately, the next holiday break was over two weeks away, and she was less inclined than Xander to spend said vacation away from her family and with a stranger to boot. As it turned out, there wasn't a lot that she needed to learn, Greg said.

Visions were tricky subjects, he told them. They were rare, but a psychic whose main ability was visions was even more rare. He or she often just had to figure out how to handle them on their own, and they usually did, though from time to time you did get someone whose visions were so damaging that they either went insane or killed themselves from the experience. So far, thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case with Cordelia, though she argued differently.

As for the rest, Greg was happy to help where he could, but again the constraints of time and opportunity came into play, as there was only so much that the older psychic could explain in the few hours after school before they either went home or on patrol with Buffy. Xander, feeling he was being generous, offered to be the one to go on patrol, letting Cordelia monopolize all of Greg's time and energy for the day. She was less than pleased with the arrangement.

"Why do I even have to do this at all?" she snapped at her boyfriend. "You and he have already said that the visions thing is something I have to figure out for myself! What else is there for crying out loud?"

"Well, Rise, for starters," Xander pointed out.

"And just because you have Visions, doesn't mean you don't also have a Burst ability that we can try and work with," Greg added. Xander pointed and nodded enthusiastically.

"Fine, whatever," Cordelia rolled her eyes.

"It's gonna be OK, Cor," Xander put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not leaving you. I could never leave you. I'll stay by your side forever. We're in this together."

"What?" she turned to face him, touched by his words, but confused as it hadn't sounded like him.

"I said it's gonna be OK... Cor-delia?" Xander grinned and shrugged helplessly.

Cordelia blinked and shook her head. "Damn visions," she cursed. "Fine. Whatever. Can we just do this already? Although, hold off on that Rise stuff for now. I'm not dressed to like sweat and stuff."

"Whatever you want," Greg said, grinning tightly while glaring at Xander. Telepathically, he communicated, '_You owe me big time for this Xander!_'

_'I know. Believe me, I know._' Xander communicated back.

'_I CAN HEAR YOU!_' Cordelia's voice echoed angrily through both their heads, and they saw her glaring at the both of them.

"Uh, I'm gonna go help patrol now," Xander beat a hasty retreat.

"Xander," Giles pointed out, as he came out of his office, "It's four o'clock in the afternoon. The sun won't even set for another two and a half hours at the soonest."

"Ah, yeah, well, uh, crap," the teen pouted.

Cordelia kept glaring at them, though she'd crossed her arms tapping her elbow with one finger and her left foot in time together to show just how much she was annoyed at the moment.

"You _definitely_ owe me big time for this, Xander," Greg said aloud this time.

_Sunnydale_

_The Magic Box_

"Blessed be," the cashier said with a wiccan-friendly smile, "Is there anything I can help you with finding?"

"Uh, well actually," Willow said hesitantly, "What do you have for self-discovery spells?"

"I... excuse me?" the woman did a double-take.

"You know," Willow bubbled, "Spells that reveal a hidden truth about yourself, stuff like that."

"I... don't think that there is a spell like that. At least not with so vague and general a purpose behind it," the woman admitted. "There are a few books we have that detail some interesting rituals..."

"Someone told me that I'm kinda gay and I need to know if its true or not," Willow blurted out all at once. The woman blinked and did another double-take, though the second glance was more thoughtful than surprised if Willow was anyone to judge.

"Ah," she finally said and stepped out from behind the counter, "_That_ kind of spell."

In the back, the door to the alley opened and let in a smoking vampire dressed mostly in black leather. He tossed down his blanket and was surprised that no one was around. Then he heard the voice up front and quickly figured out he was in a magic shop from the displays and merchandise around him. "Perfect," he mutters, patting himself down to make sure nothing else is smoking.

"Now, just got to find meself a curse or something," Spike said to himself as he started rummaging around the bookshelves and stored ingredients. "Something nasty. Boils. I wanna give him boils all over his face. You know, dripping pustules. Let's really go for the gusto here."

Up front, the shopkeeper looks towards the back with a frown, hearing unfamiliar noises, but Willow's enthusiasm for a spell to help her find out if she's 'kinda gay' or not quickly drew her back to helping the young witch-in-training. Besides, it was rather obvious that she just needed to vent more than she needs a spell.

"Leprosy! Alright, a spell that makes his parts fall off. That sounds proper," Spike exclaimed, psyching himself up to get back at Angel for dismissing him the night before, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff.

Before he found 'leprosy' however, he turned towards the back door and nearly jumped out of his leather duster when he saw some freak in a white 'birdman' costume, minus the feathers and replaced with a white coat and a white helmet that looked like a giant beak, just standing there staring at him.

"Bloody hell!" he nearly shouted, but was aware enough that he didn't want one of the soddin' Slayer's lackies to find him before he was ready. Especially not in broad daylight.

"Soddin' wanker," Spike cursed the interloper, "Bout had a heart attack there. And my heart don't even beat no more. Sod off, I was here first. Come back in ten, I'll probably have killed the shoplady by then."

The stranger in white just stood there and kept staring. Spike stared back for all of ten seconds before getting bored, muttering, "Wanker," under his breath and went back to his scrounging for curses. When he turned back around, the wierdo was gone, but there was something on the floor where he'd been standing. A red card. Spike picked it up and looked it over.

"Psy-ren, huh?" he read off the front, then shrugged and tossed it over his shoulder. Suddenly, something caught his eye and he smiled like all his Christmas's had come all at once and he got to kill one Slayer for each of the 12 days of Christmas.

"Now this, this is exactly what I need," he cackled, pocketing the book. It was simply titled, "Legend of the Gem of Amara." He was so excited by this discovery, he didn't even realize that he'd left the magic shop without killing anyone, and he wouldn't be back, leaving town immediately that night to get the book translated.

A few moments after the door shut, the owner came back and frowned in concern when she saw nobody back there, but signs that someone or something had been rifling through her merchandise in the back. Then she noticed the bright red card just laying there in the middle of the floor. She picked it up, but did not recognize it or who it might be from. Finally, she picked out the things she came back for and rejoined Willow at the front, unconsciously bringing the Psyren card with her.

"Here we are," she announced, holding up the items and placing them on the counter, unknowingly putting the Psyren card between two of the items so it caught and wouldn't be easily seen. "Everything you'll need for a Dream Walk ritual. It's not exactly a self-discovery spell, but it does allow one to better understand your thoughts, choices, and analyze past regrets as well as your general attitude towards life. Similar to what Indian shamans are reported for using during their own rituals of self-enlightenment, but far more tame."

"Great!" Willow enthusiastically paid for the lot of it and was out the store and back home before she knew it. It wasn't until that night that she actually took everything out of the bag with the intention of performing the ritual spell that evening that she discovered the bright red calling card that had been stuck between two of the packages.

"Oh... wow," was the redhead's only reaction as she stared in awe and fear at the small piece of plastic.

_Library_

_Night_

"Well, like we suspected," Greg was saying as he helped pick up books off the floor, "your primary ability lies in Trance, in particular your _Visions_, but you also picked up everything I could teach you about other Trance abilities incredibly fast, so it's safe to say you are a Trance-type. That doesn't mean you can't use Burst, as we also discovered, you have a latent telekinetic ability. It's not as powerful as mine or Xander's, but with practice and a bit of imagination, you can make it powerful in your own right."

"Gee, what was your first clue?" Cordelia snarled at the man, her hair and clothes in complete disarray and her eyes bloodshot while her skin was both pale and flushed at the same time, making her look kind of sick with a blotchy complexion.

"When you started exciting the molecules in the air around you, thus making that bit of wind and rattling the books on the table behind me," Greg answered with a straight face and serious tone. "If it were Xander doing that, or even just me, the table would have gone flying, to speak nothing of the books on it, and all the windows would have exploded from the air pressure change alone. So, latent and not as powerful, but still present."

"You get used to the attitude," Xander said to his girlfriend, "At least that's what Giles told me, I'm still waiting for it to happen though."

"How is your exercise over there going, by the way?" Greg asked without looking.

Xander grumbled something in response, but it was inaudible to them.

For the past three hours, Greg had been working with both young psychics on ways to develop or exercise their abilities. With Cordelia, he'd been sitting and explaining everything he knew about Trance and how to utilize it's various abilities, while with Xander, he had working on his fine control in the background by doing the 'Empire Strikes Back' training stuff, only instead of doing a one-handed handstand, he was sitting cross-legged in mid-air. It wasn't until after the first hour that he began to sweat, and somewhere during the third hour that he began getting clumsy in what he was moving and holding, though he still hadn't dropped anything yet. When that began to happen, Greg began working on eliciting a Burst reaction from Cordelia. It just so happened that throwing bits of paper at her was enough, and her telekinesis responded to her mounting anger by throwing everything around her, even the air, away from her. She'd even lifted off the ground by one half-millimeter for less than a second.

Compared to himself and Xander, it wasn't spectacular, but it was telekinesis nevertheless.

So, while Cordelia was dealing with a headache and the whole emotional range of everything she'd been going through since coming back from Psyren, Xander was working up an actual sweat just by sitting still, and Greg was going back and forth between them, trying to push them just that little bit more that he felt they could.

Until Buffy and Faith burst into the office, chattering about Slayer stuff, and broke everyone's concentration. Not entirely of course, but enough that Greg knew they would make no further progress that evening.

"So, who's going where?" Faith asked as she and Buffy geared up for a typical night in Sunnydale. Which meant lots of wooden stakes, holy water and at least two back-up weapons.

"Well, uh," Buffy started to say something, but Xander spoke up first.

"Typical patrol, right? Nothing major happening, no apocalypse on the horizon, no uber-demon to be worrying about?"

"Yeah, what of it X-Man?" the Boston Slayer retorted.

"Nothing, just wanted to make sure that it was OK for me to patrol on my own, that's all," he smirked an put his hands in his pockets.

"Whoa, wait a minute Xander!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Hey, I need the practice, not to mention practical application of some techniques I want to try out," he said with a shrug.

"Speaking of that," Greg spoke up, "there are some more things I want to show you Xander, but Cordelia's emergency distracted me from that. It can wait until tomorrow though."

"Tell you what," Faith suddenly spoke up, "Why don't we partner up, rather than go it all alone?"

"Yeah!" Xander immediately agreed. "I can get Will and Oz together, then me and Cordelia can double-date with them and cover the Bronze and warehouse district. That leaves you to cover the north side with Angel, Buffy, and Faith can cover the south side with..."

"Mr. Psychic here," the dark-haired Slayer was suddenly at Greg's side, holding his arm tight against her body, right between her breasts even. Greg, surprised at the sudden move, and the smoldering look in the younger girl's eyes, just gulped and didn't say anything.

"Sounds like a plan!" Xander exclaimed, grinning widely.

"Wait, but I, but..." Buffy stuttered, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

"Spike?" Cordelia suddenly said out of the blue.

"Huh? What?! Where?!" Buffy shouted, turning and looking at every corner of the room for the master vampire.

Cordelia shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "Uh, Spike was here. In town I mean, but... I don't know, I think he left again. He'll be back though."

"He better not be," Buffy grumbled.

"Who's Spike?" Faith asked.

"Ah," Giles answered, "William the Bloody, aka Spike. A... protege if you will, of Angelus when he was still part of the Scourge of Europe. He and his paramour, Drusilla, stayed in town for a little over a year ago, and wreaked havoc, targeting Buffy and the rest of us by association. He... assisted Buffy in distracting Angelus in order to prevent the destruction of the world, on the condition that he leave town immediately after, Buffy allowed him to live."

"A mistake I'm not about to repeat," the blond growled, pacing now. "Are you sure he's gone?"

Cordelia stared off into empty space for a second, and then she suddenly had a vision, no other way to call it, of the scene in the back of a magic shop as a drunken Spike looked for something to curse Angel with, saw Nemesis Q, picked up and then threw away a Psyren card, and then left after lifting a single book from the store. The vision shifted to him driving out of town at that moment, making sure to hit the recently repaired 'Welcome To Sunnydale' sign on his way out. Then it ended and she was back in the Library, and her headache was slowly fading away.

"Uh, yeah," she answered, a bit uncomfortable with suddenly being the one with the information. Usually that was Willow or Giles' schtick. "He's on his way out of town already. I wonder how many times they've had to repair that sign..."

They all stared at the psychic cheerleader for a minute, then shrugged off her last comment and turned back to their immediate plans. In the end, Buffy agreed with Xander's suggestion on her covering the north side with Angel, while Faith, Greg and Giles covered the south side, and Cordelia called Willow and Oz to meet them at the Bronze for a double date patrol.

_Rosenberg Residence_

_One Week Later_

Willow sat on her bed and stared at the red plastic card in her hand. It had been more than a week since she'd gotten, or maybe found, the Psyren card at her favorite magic store. She'd almost gone straight for the nearest phone with it on her way home that day. Before she could though, Cordelia had called her to tell her about the plans for patrolling that night.

The really weird part of it was though, that she'd been walking past a public telephone on her way home when it rang suddenly. She'd almost dismissed it, except that after it had stopped ringing and she started to move away, the phone right next to it, in the direction she'd been moving, began ringing. It turned out to be Cordelia, who only knew that "she'd dialed the number where she could reach her" and the numbers just popped into her head.

Willow immediately raced home and hid the card under her bed mattress, and then set a protection spell on her entire bed. She had no idea if it would block psychic visions at the time or not, but she had to at least try. Since Cordelia hadn't had any visions, and Xander and the others hadn't shown up telling her to hand it over, and the fact that it was still here told her that apparently it had.

But she knew she couldn't just hang on to it for however much longer. She was the one that had told everyone about Psyren in the first place, had pointed out the dangers of it. And, from a twisted point of view, it was because of her warning that Xander found the need to use the card immediately rather than risk them hanging onto it coming back to bite them in the ass later. Now, he and Cordelia were trapped in this insane game called Psyren, and it was all her fault. At least it felt that way to her.

But maybe... maybe there was a way she could make it all right again. Maybe, if she...

"No," Willow threw the card away from her, where it hit the wall and fell to the floor with a harmless sounding clatter. She was being silly, she knew that. Xander would definitely _NOT_ thank her for joining him and Cordelia in whatever Psyren was.

Just because she still had a crush on him... No, wait! She was with Oz! Damnit!

For weeks after Buffy came back, she and Xander had been... all flirty with each other. Then he found that stupid Psyren card and disappeared for a day and a week, and suddenly he's got super powers like Buffy, and he's all moody and definitely not all flirty like he used to be with her. And since Cordelia disappeared too and showed up with her own Psyren card...

Well, let's just say that she was pretty sure the two of them weren't going to be breaking up any time soon. And as much as she really liked being with Oz, (_Her_! With a _Boyfriend!_), she knew she wasn't in love with him. Not yet at least. There was just something missing, something she couldn't explain or define.

But all of that was no reason to do what she was considering doing right now, right?

Was she even still considering this?

Willow stood up off her bed, walked over and picked the red card back up. She stared at the unique symbol that was on the card. It kind of looked like some sort of hi-tech cross, or archaic symbol of some kind. Xander had said that his was like a closed eye. Especially when he wound up going to Psyren.

That hadn't made a lot of sense to her when he'd told them that.

What exactly did going to Psyren offer her anyway? Xander and Cordelia told them that they were not the only ones that had been 'Spirited Away' this last time. There were at least a dozen other people, and only themselves and one other guy, who 'disappeared' shortly after they got back, actually came out of the experience alive. All the others died. Violently.

So what was the difference between that and her everyday life living atop the Hellmouth as a witch helping the Slayer? Not a whole lot by her reckoning.

That was the negative, now what about the positive?

She got psychic powers, apparently after a fever and nosebleed.

Willow grabbed her computer-phone and put on her headset before sliding the Psyren card through the modified card reader. The phone number automatically dialed through her computer, and the dial-tone came through her headset crisp and clear.

A moment later, it picked up, and Willow heard the accented female voice begin speaking. "Greetings! Your World is now Connected! You've reached the Immigration Offices of Psyren. We will now commence the Immigration Examination. Please answer the following questions. Each question has two choices. If your answer is yes, please press one. If your answer is no, please press two."

Willow almost hung up halfway through the introduction, but something made her hesitate, and more than that she wanted to see what all this involved. She couldn't help it, she was curious, and more than anything that was her Achilles Heel.

"Question 1. Are you an American citizen older than 12? Dial Yes or No."

Not surprised at all by the straightforward demographic question, Willow immediately typed a '1' on her keyboard, which doubled as a touch-tone keypad thanks to a special program she'd designed herself.

"Question 2. Are you worried about the fate of the world? Dial Yes or No."

That wasn't so typical of demographics, so it took Willow a second to actually hit the '1' again.

"Question 3. Have you ever suffered a brain injury or been diagnosed with a serious illness? Dial Yes or No."

Willow actually had to think about this one, because unfortunately her parents were rather paranoid about her health when she was younger, so she was always taken to a professional diagnostician for every little cough or sneeze, but thankfully the answer to that was no, so she hit the '2'.

"Question 4. Do you have chronic difficulty breathing, or have you ever felt your planet's atmosphere is difficult to breathe in? Dial Yes or No."

Only when she'd been running for her life from a vampire or demon, but she'd been getting more and more in shape since meeting Buffy. Still, the question seemed to be asking about day-to-day living rather than special circumstances, she she hit the '2' again there.

"Question 5. Have you ever dreamed of talking sheep? Dial Yes or No."

Unfortunately, Xander was the only one who dreamed of talking sheep. She dreamed about talking frogs instead. She suppressed a shiver as she hit the '2' again. She hated frogs.

"Question 6. Do you believe there's life in outer space? Dial Yes or No."

Considering that she knew for a fact that there were alternate dimensions that housed creatures that wanted to kill her and every human on the planet, she highly doubted that there _wasn't_ life in outer space. She hit the '1'. The questions started to jump around a little after that.

"Question 12. Even if you couldn't communicate verbally, you could get your thoughts across. Dial Yes or No."

Frowning in thought, Willow hit the '1' in answer. Oz was kind of creepy when he just knew what she meant just by looking at her sometimes.

"Question 13. Have you ever bled blue blood? Dial Yes or No."

No. Just no.

"Question 20. You think most amphibians are disgusting. Dial Yes or No."

Yes, because they're slimy.

"Question 24. You have close friends. Dial Yes or No."

Yes, of course she did. She wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for her friends. She was doing it _for_ her friends after all. Right? … Yeah, even she knew she was deluding herself.

"Question 25. Has your hair, skin, or eye color ever spontaneously changed color? Dial Yes or No."

Visions of the future aside, she had to hit 'No' on that one.

"Question 30. Have you ever killed a living thing larger than a human? Dial Yes or No."

She kind of helped out in killing the Hellmouth demon, that should count. She hit the '1'.

"Question 31. Have you ever poured water hotter than 80 degrees Celsius on your face? Dial Yes or No."

She might be curious, but she wasn't stupid. No.

"Question 60. You feel unsatisfied with High School life."

Willow patiently hit the number '2'. She was used to having to do tedious tasks to get to the meat of the puzzle, and she'd only been at this for twenty or so minutes. Besides, she was very satisfied with her High School life, it was better than she had ever thought it could be! Plus, she got to teach classes!

"Question 61. You don't think anything of the future."

Willow hit the '2' because she was definitely thinking of the future. Especially when it concerned prophecies and now Cordelia's visions!

"Question 62. You have no desire to honor your friends cautionary boundaries."

Willow hit the number one, even as her mind went blank with open shock.

"Question 63. You feel that your friends and allies underestimate what you're capable of, holding you back, and you find it extremely annoying." Willow gulped and took a bit longer to hit the number '1' key there.

"Question 64. You have feelings for your childhood friend. And you're considering cheating on your boyfriend with him." She froze, and then the shock wore off. If it hadn't been for Cordelia's 'Vision' about her being 'kinda gay', and her doing a lot of self-discovery from it, she might've been a bit more disturbed by this question. Instead, she just hesitated a moment longer before hitting the number '2' key. She was no longer considering it at all, and it was clear to her exactly what Xander's choice would be.

"Question 65. You feel that you have a great power within yourself, power that is yours by right and makes you better than the idiots surrounding you from day to day."

"I... I don't think I like this anymore..." Willow whispered, a great pressure wrapping around her heart. She almost hung up the phone right then and there, but something else, something she didn't want to describe, made her press the number one key on the keyboard.

"Question 66. You are a witch. Dial Yes or No."

Finally, an easy answer, though no less creepy with how the caller suddenly seemed to know some very intimate things about her. She hit 'Yes'.

"Question 67. Do you want to come to Psyren? Dial Yes or No."

This was it. Willow took a deep breath and let it out in a long slow sigh. She hit the number one key without any hesitation, and wasn't surprised in the slightest by the next bit coming from the phone. "Examination Complete. We will contact you regarding the results..." And then the line went dead.

_Sunnyside Motel_

_Faith's Motel Room_

Faith stepped out of the shower, scrubbing her hair dry, still naked after kicking her latest boytoy out on his ass. He wasn't bad over all, but she'd definitely had better. For half a second she thought she felt something else in the room, or maybe seen someone standing by her bed while she'd been drying her hair, but when she pulled the towel away and looked around the ten-by-ten room, she saw no one else.

Shrugging, and figured it for being paranoid from having lived on the Hellmouth for as long as she had, (Hey, three months and counting, not too shabby all things considered). She put on a pair of panties and left the towel hanging from her shoulders as she lay down on her crappy bed. Still another hour or two before she had to meet up with B and the psychics for midnight patrol. Until then, she didn't really have a lot to do.

She had to admit, having some other people with superpowers around was making life interesting, but she kind of missed when it was just her and B, two Slayers against everything the Hellmouth had to throw at them. Then her beau Angel had to show back up, then there was the shit with the fake Watcher named Post, not to mention all the crap that happened during Homecoming and Trick still being in town.

The days of Slayer Sisters Versus The World were officially over. Oh well, they'd been nice while they lasted. At least G's friend Greg had a nice butt. Not to mention what he could potentially do with the telekinesis of his. They'd teased each other bad enough that first night patrolling, Faith had practically tossed it all to the wind and took the guy in the middle of the street, but she was bound and determined to have him make the first move. So far that was turning out to be harder to do than when she set out.

Her hair dry now, Faith sat up, planning on getting dressed, when she happened to glance at her bedside table out of the corner of her eye. A flash of red made her pause and do a double-take.

There, sitting right on the corner, next to the phone, was the now all-too-familiar red Psyren card. And she was pretty sure neither Xander nor Cordelia had been in her motel room to accidentally leave it behind or anything. And she highly doubted that it had belonged to the punk she'd just kicked out, as he'd hardly had anything in his pants at all, and he didn't exactly take them all the way off.

She had to admit it was possible he'd planted it there and wasn't as stupid as he made himself out to be, but she doubted that. Plus, there was that moment she thought she'd sensed someone else in the room after coming out of her shower. Maybe...

"Nah," she shook her head.

Then again, five million bucks. But she'd have to ask Willow where to go to get it. Or worse, Giles.

Besides, what if it really was Xander's or Cordelia's? She doubted it would work if it had already been used, and she'd been hoodwinked by such deals in the past, where they have to 'test it out' before shelling out the money, and calling it defective while still keeping it and the cash.

On the other hand, if she tried it out, there's a chance that she could be immune to that whole 'keep it a secret or you die' deal that Xander and Cordy suffered every time they tried to talk about Psyren. Maybe because she was the Slayer... OK, even she knew she was deluding herself there. Being the Slayer just meant you got killed sooner, didn't make you Supergirl or anything.

With a sigh, Faith picked up card and lay back on her bed, feet still on the floor and towel draped suggestively across her shoulders and neck. She held the card above her and looked at in the crappy light of her motel room.

Five million bucks was a lot of money. More than she could easily imagine, that's for sure. But then again, people that offered that kind of reward usually had a way of weaseling out of it at the last minute, leaving the schmoe that did all the work for them with less than nothing.

Besides, apparently the trade off for selling your life to the game was psychic powers, and that may just be her in to getting Greggy-boy beggin' her for some luvin'. Or maybe she was just bored. She glanced at the clock again, and wasn't surprised the she still had more than an hour to kill.

Why not?

"Hell, why not?" she asked herself out loud and sat up, reaching for the card-reader phone beside the bed. Damn manager had put the thing in a month ago, saying stuff about how he could now charge all the businessmen coming through for using their pre-paid phone cards and have the cash rolling in. She just hoped this wouldn't add to her bill. Sucking that guy off once a week was not worth staying in this dive, even if he had a ten-incher.

The phone rang once, and then she heard some ladies voice saying, "Your World is now Co-nnec-ted..."

_Chase Mansion_

Cordelia Chase woke up in a sweat and nearly screamed as her head throbbed and a hundred different visions wracked her brain all at once. She couldn't make sense of it all at once, but the overlying message was all too clear.

"Oh shit, we are so screwed!" the brunette moaned as she held her head in pain.

To Be Continued...

AN: Cordelia's 'Visions' power is sort of a cross between the "visions" she had in _Angel_, Phoebe's visions from _Charmed_, and also Charisma Carpenter's demon-seer character Kyra where she just seemed to know stuff. Sometimes there will be actual visions, the rest of the time it will be like she is remembering future events as though they already happened. There may be a bit of _Dead Zone_ in there at certain points too. As far as her telekinesis... low-level and can only ever pick up her own weight, or redirect certain forces. Her real ability lies in Trance and combining that with her other abilities and those of others.

AN2: Spike is not planned to come back at any point for the near future, and if he does, he'll instantly be neutered by the Initiative.

AN3: Anybody care to guess what Willow and Faith's psychic powers are going to be? Well, anyway, next chapter is "Round Three!" Enjoy!


	5. Round Three

Round Three:

_Earth_

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Sunnydale High School_

_Two Days Later_

Xander was walking to school, early in the morning, when it happened. The weekend had thankfully been quiet on the Hellmouth front, and Cordelia was getting better at controlling her new abilities, not enough to control when she did or didn't have a vision, but enough that she was as proficient in Trance as him or Greg, and her Burst, or telekinetic abilities were getting good enough that she could pick up a small booklet without it shaking too badly. Other than Willow and Faith being hermits and staying in the whole weekend, it was pretty quiet overall. That should have been all the clue Xander needed to know what was coming.

He was just passing some phone booths alongside the road when he heard a generic telephone ring. Figuring it must have come from one of the booths and whoever was supposed to be there was late or whatever, he moved on and didn't think about it, until he heard the ringing noise twice more and he realized that he was no where near any phones and the ringing was getting louder.

"Oh... shit..." he cursed and started running. He was still another two minutes out, and the last couple times he'd always found a phone within a minute of it starting to get really loud. He didn't want to know how loud it would get after three or more minutes.

"Hope Cordy knows what to do," he thought out loud as he raced into the school building, the noise ringing through his head every ten seconds and getting louder with each passing interval.

"Xander?" Giles exclaimed when Xander burst into the library, stumbling his way past the double doors towards Giles office. He would've gone to the Student Lounge, except there were a lot of people there right now, and he didn't want to risk the Sunnydale Syndrome not coming into effect with something as obvious as him disappearing in broad daylight.

"Xander, are you all right?" Giles asked as he helped they teen psychic to stand to his feet.

"Uh... not really," Xander flinched as his head nearly exploded when the phone rang again.

"Uh, Giles, hate to break it to you like this but," ear-splitting ring, "Gah! Sorry, but Cordy and I aren't gonna be in school today! I need to use your phone!"

"Of course, but Xander..." the Watcher was cut off as the young man threw his school things onto the table and raced towards his office and slammed the door shut behind him. "What on earth?"

He followed Xander to the door and opened it maybe fifteen if not ten seconds after it had been slammed shut, not very long at all. Yet the moment the Englishman opened the door, all he saw was an empty office and his phone off the hook.

"My word..." Giles was shocked, and even after looking all over the office, he found nowhere that Xander could have left by or been hiding in. The only thing he did find was a small notepad beside the phone, with a single word hastily scrawled on it. The word, in Xander's sloppy handwriting, was "Psyren", to which Giles had only one thing to say.

"Oh dear."

_Psyren_

_Sunnydale Housing District_

_Morning_

"Well it's about time you showed up!" was the first thing Xander heard upon his third arrival in Psyren. Blinking, he spun around and tried to figure out where he was and who was speaking to him.

The last part was easy, as he soon saw his girlfriend, Cordelia Chase standing there in functional, yet still hot-looking denim jeans, and a tight blouse with what looked like a tank top or sports bra under it. She'd put her long brunette hair back into a ponytail with a red scrunchy and had a couple stakes in her hands.

As far as where he was, well instead of the outskirts where only a few businesses and gas stations were, it looked like they were a little closer to the center of town, but not by much, judging by the houses on either side of the street he was standing on. Like the rest of the town, the houses that used to be homes were broken down, almost corroded where they stood, but the fact that they still stood at all was enough.

"We've been waiting for, like, ever! We've got a serious problem, Xander!" she told him with no small amount of urgency. "C'mon! Hurry!"

Not wanting to risk a repeat of the last round, and vowing not to let anyone else die on his watch, Xander hurried after her as she lead the way into one of the more stable looking houses. Then, to his surprise, past the house and to an enclosed stone structure of some kind. It wasn't until they were inside that he realized it was an old fashioned bomb shelter, just with a few modern, if rather aged, conveniences. Only he had quite a few other issues to deal with besides a modernized bomb shelter in the middle of a post-Apocalyptic wasteland.

"What the...?" Xander cursed. "Willow! Faith? What the heck are you... Oh come on! Really? I mean _REALLY_?"

"I-I-I, I'm s-sorry, Xan-Xander..." Willow cowered and was on the verge of crying.

Faith, however, crossed her arms and practically dared the young psychic to start something. "What of it, X? You got a problem with havin' a Slayer that ain't B around to watch your back?"

Xander scowled at her and immediately responded, "No, Faith. I've got a problem with two more of my friends putting themselves in danger like this! Cordelia and I couldn't tell you this before, but in the last round, _people DIED_! The group started off at over a dozen people! Cordelia and I _were the only ones left_!"

"Wh-what?" one of the other players suddenly cried out, drawing Xander's attention towards the others that he did not already know. It was not as many people, but then again there's the chance that others just hadn't shown up yet.

Realizing that blame could wait until later, he took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then cleared his mind. "_Voyager_," he intoned and immediately a cloud of translucent fog appeared around them before it went out the nearest window and spread throughout the area.

"Cordelia," Xander's voice was tight, controlled. "Until Willow and Faith know what to expect, which means until we get back home for this round," he glared and spoke harshly at the pair, "you're in charge here. I'm going to scout around and pick up any more stragglers. Found the Starting Point yet?"

"Not... exactly," she shrugged. At his look, she continued, "It's another street-side phone booth, one block over, which we can reach by going out the back door of this house. I kinda had a vision as soon as I got here. And, uh, I think there are three more people out there. If you hurry."

Xander didn't bother saying anything else, he just nodded and raced out the front door. Faith made to follow him, but Cordelia stopped her and shook her head. "He can handle this much. Besides, you don't need a broken leg."

"Huh?" Faith glared confusedly at the cheerleader.

"Trust me, if you follow Xander right now, you'll break your leg or something. Well..." her eyes sort of shifted about, "_Now_ if you follow him, you're going to have an open gash on your leg... er, arm... OK, you know what, you're just not going with him. Period, OK? OK."

"And what makes you think you could stop me, Barbie?" Faith stepped up to intimidate the girl.

Cordelia's brow raised half an inch, and took a step to get into the dark Slayer's personal space. "Excuse me? Do I look like a blond to you, white trash tramp? In case you forgot, you're not the only one with powers now."

"Uh, guys, please, let's not fight?" Willow tried to stop the impending cat-fight. Then again, between a psychic and a Slayer, it would undoubtedly be more than your typical cat-fight.

"Oh don't get me started on you dweebette!" Cordelia snapped at the girl. "I had enough insecurities thanks to you being best friends with _my_ boyfriend, and now you had to go and horn in on the one secret we could share with each other and no one else? Thanks a lot!"

"Hey, I, uh, huh?" Willow started off outraged and then got confused by her rival's admission.

"Leave Red out of it Barbie," Faith snapped. "Not like she can defend herself just yet."

"Hey!" Willow screamed in indignation, "I don't need _you_ of all people to defend me! I can defend myself just fine thank you very much!"

"Oh, so you think you can run with the big dogs now, just because you got a little mojo in your corner? Let me tell you Red, Slayer trumps witch every time," the brunette Slayer shot back.

"And psychic trumps Slayer _and_ witch, as Xander's shown you, now shut up and listen to me already!" the cheerleader psychic shouted at both of them.

"Make me!" the Slayer yelled.

"Yeah!" the red-haired witch exclaimed, her anger getting her caught up in the moment.

"Um, excuse me?"

"Stay out of this!" all three girls snapped at the interloper before turning their attention back on one another. That is until they each realized in turn that the entire room was staring at them like they were crazy.

"Xander's back," the timid short boy whimpered and pointed behind the three girls.

They all turned and stared and saw that indeed, Xander was back with three more people behind him. One of them was already familiar to the group.

"Amy?" Willow asked in surprise. The blond girl waved, but before she could speak, Xander interrupted the argument between the three super-powered girls.

"Did I miss something?" he asked expectantly.

"She started it!" all three of them shouted at once, pointing at each other.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Never mind."

"But Xander...!" they all said at once before cutting each other off and glaring at one another.

"Shut up!" he said loudly. He did not shout, did not say it in anger, more frustration than anything else, but he might as well have shot off a cannon with how quiet it became after he spoke.

"Let's get one thing straight people," he raised his voice so the entire room could hear him. "People have _died_ here! This Psyren _game_ is no joke, and I don't even want to call it a game, but that's what Nemesis Q calls it. So listen up, because I am not going to repeat myself here!"

Once he was certain he had everyone's attention and was equally sure that he would not be interrupted by those that knew him better, he continued. "This is the future. I don't know by how many years, but right now we're all in Sunnydale of the future. Get used to that. Later. For right now, keep listening. There is something in the atmosphere. I don't know what, but it is not lethal. What it does is, after roughly six hours, you get a migraine, a nosebleed and a fever. After which you then have psychic powers. Myself and Cordelia here have been to Psyren before, therefore we already have our psychic abilities. You will see us using them, so do not be surprised by this and anything Cordelia says is going to happen, _IS GOING TO HAPPEN_!" That time he shouted loud enough to rattle the remaining glass in the barred windows. He also glared at Faith and Willow with equal measure.

"Now," he continued at a more normal volume, "how many of you have one of these?" He held up his Psyren card. Most of the room, save the girls he was annoyed with, pulled out and held up their cards. With a look, Faith and Willow reluctantly and shamefaced, pulled out their own cards.

"Hold it up to your head and concentrate on the card itself. Then look at the back," he told them, wishing he'd known that much during his first round, and wished he'd thought of showing everyone how to do it during his last round too.

After everyone had revealed the hidden information on their cards, he waited while they read it. Just to pass the time, he read his own once again, despite having read it during Thanksgiving vacation and his training with Greg.

**Welcome to PSYREN**

**YOU WILL BECOME A PARTICIPANT (AKA PSYREN DRIFTER) IN THIS GAME.**

**A DRIFTER IS SOMEONE WHO MAKES A CONTRACT WITH NEMESIS Q BY THEIR RESPONSES TO THE TELEPHONE.**

**THE GAME WILL CONTINUE UNTIL YOUR CARDS VALUE IS USED UP.**

**ALWAYS HAVE THIS CARD ON HAND.**

**YOU ARE TO TALK TO NO ONE ABOUT PSYREN EXCEPT FELLOW DRIFTERS.**

**CHECK THE MAP AT YOUR STARTING POINT.**

**THE TOWER IS DANGEROUS. UNLESS YOU'RE CONFIDENT, DON'T GO NEAR IT.**

**DRIFTERS WHO DIE WILL TURN TO ASH.**

**TOGETHER WITH NEMESIS Q... COME LEAP THROUGH TIME**

**GOOD LUCK TO ALL DRIFTERS TRAVELLING TO CHANGE THE FUTURE**

"What the fuck?" Faith cursed.

"Change the future..." Willow whispered out loud.

"Yeah, so, any questions?" Xander asked them all.

He wasn't surprised to see they numbered about a baker's dozen, counting himself and Cordelia. Besides Faith and Willow, whom he was really ticked off at for the moment, there were another nine people, half of which were kids he recognized from school. The rest were unfamiliar adults that were dressed casually and had no real distinctive traits. No one said anything else, and Faith looked like she was biting her tongue to keep from cursing up a storm.

"All right, any stupid questions?" he asked again.

There was some uncomfortable shuffling, but one person actually raised their hand to ask a question. Xander almost shivered as he realized that he'd just put himself in charge, just by channeling a bit of Soldier Boy and Mr. Brood in a Crisis. At least the few times he'd seen Angel take charge in a crisis he _looked_ like he knew what he was doing, so that's what Xander was trying to do. Because if there was anything he could do to stop it, he'd swear never to let another life end in this godforsaken apocalypse.

"Uh, yes? Joe-Jack... John, right?" he pointed to the one that had raised his hand.

"Uh, Jonathan actually. Jonathan Levinson," the short boy quietly corrected, before continuing with his question, "Wh-what is s-supposed to happen n-next?"

A heartbeat later, they heard a phone ring in the distance from outside.

"That," Xander grinned and shrugged. He quickly lead the way out of the shelter, all of them following behind. Just as Cordelia said, barely even a full block from the shelter's rear entrance, they found a phone booth standing alone in the middle of an empty lot, which judging by the debris around it, used to be between two or more buildings. He walked right up to it and opened the shattered door to the booth and reached for the receiver.

"Wait!" Willow cried out. "We-we d-don't know who it's from! It-it-it might be..."

"Wills?" he interrupted her. "I've kind of done this before. When all of the Drifters are at the Starting Point, the phone rings and... well it gets a bit weird for a bit, but basically we're shown where the gate is and a map is downloaded to the screen here. Then comes the hard part."

"Hard part?" Amy Madison, the blond girl standing behind him, squeaked.

"Staying alive until we get to the Gate," he answered without turning fully around. He ignored any other commotion and picked up the receiver and lifted it to his ear. The vision came as suddenly as it always did. A few people might've screamed, he thought, but it was impossible to tell because the voice and the vision of the Gate's location blocked out everything else without exception.

*FLASH!*

_**Those Seeking Psyren Shall Taste Power and Despair!**_

_**Those Seeking Psyren Shall Taste Power and Despair!**_

_** Those Who Reach Psyren Shall Be Granted the World!**_

_** There Is Only One Exit In This Game.**_

_** Those Seeking Psyren... Those Searching For The Exit From This World... Find the Gate!**_

The vision itself showed a pile of junk, with what looked like a brand new digital phone thrown on top of it and then left to sit there for however much time between the present and whenever now was. It wasn't connected to anything that they could see, but Xander wouldn't put it past Nemesis Q to make sure it still worked for however long this round would last. He just hoped, as the vision ended, that they could all make it this time. Without a word, he pulled up the map and after looking at it for a second, cursed out loud. Loudly.

"What?" half the group wanted to know. The half that actually knew him that is.

He almost considered not telling them, then finally faced facts and sighed. "The Gate is on the south side, a mile or two away from the beach."

"So? That doesn't sound so bad?" Amy said optimistically.

"We're in the northeastern residential area, and even if we had a car, which we don't, and I wouldn't trust it to run in this kind of environment, or even still be working after all this time, it would take us almost half an hour to get there from here. It's going to take ten times as long on foot. We're in trouble," he cursed again.

"So what do we do?" Willow asked him.

Taking a deep breath, he began to pace, running his fingers through his hair. After three or four passes, he turned to his girlfriend, a guilty-hopeful-reluctant-desperate look on his face. She already had her eyes closed and fingers at her temples. A moment later, she gasped as her eyes snapped open.

"We... we need to leave. Like right now!"

"Done! You heard her people! Move out! Stay together! Yell if you see anything dangerous! Otherwise, keep quiet and pay attention to me, Cordelia and Faith. Willow, you're on crowd-control."

"But I..." she started to argue.

"Wills," he gave her the same look as before. "Now is not that time. Just please, do as I say."

"Uh... alright," she whimpered and then put on her Resolve Face and started pushing people together and keeping them in a group. Xander quickly caught up with Cordelia.

"Well?" he asked.

"Demons. I-I think anyway," she answered uncertainly. "There was something weird about them. But we've got a chance. One chance. And if we don't hurry, I think we're going to miss it."

Xander gulped and hesitated before opening his mouth to ask a question he really didn't want to know the answer to. Cordelia answered it before he could even ask. "I don't know how many make it Xander. Right now, each of us, me, you, Willow and even Faith are dying at this point. In a hundred different ways from a thousand different choices. Don't ask me how I know this, I just know it, all right?"

"All right. I'm a firm believer in your visions Cordy, so you don't have to defend yourself to me. By the way, would the demons happen to be big, ugly, and have glowing orbs sticking out of their bodies?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, but we shouldn't be seeing them for another three minutes and twenty-four seconds," she replied. "Why?"

"OK, in that case, why are we supposed to be heading towards downtown rather than the Gate?"

"Oh, you noticed that, huh?" she sheepishly remarked as she blushed.

"That's the only direction where there are demons. At least as far as Voyager will let me see," he explained. "The direction that I figured from the map looks clear. For now. What happens if we go straight for the Gate?"

"Demons come at us from the side, vampire gangs show up right as we're making the calls and only half of the group makes it, not including Faith by the way, and I get a whole bunch of new scars. Both mental and physical," she said without preamble.

"And what happens if we reach the Library?" he cautiously put forth.

"Who says we're going to reach the Library?" she countered straightforwardly.

"Right," he drawled. "Any hints on how to kill the demons?"

"..."

"Cordelia?"

"... I... don't know," she finally admitted with a frown.

"Whoa, Miss Psychic Visions doesn't know something? What a concept!" Faith teased from just behind the couple. The rest of the group was far enough back not to have heard anything thankfully.

"It all comes in flashes mostly," the brunette psychic defended. "And most all I'm seeing isn't pretty."

"Decapitation usually kills anything," the Dark Slayer retorted.

"Don't suppose you're hiding a sword or an axe somewhere that we haven't seen?" Xander prompted.

Faith blinked, then frowned and started looking around.

"Note to self; start bringing weapons to Psyren every time I hear that damn phone ringing."

"Duly noted," Cordelia said out loud.

Xander and Faith both looked at her kind of funny, but she just shrugged it off and figured it was both of them that could've said it, if she hadn't said something first that is. Speaking of which...

"We need to start running now," Cordelia cried out, right before she ran straight down an alley they passed as fast as she could. There was a breath of hesitation before everyone else started running after her as fast as they all could move. Xander and Faith ran along the sides and made sure that Willow, the last of the group, had passed them before starting to run faster themselves.

Faith easily kept the pace and was keeping her senses wide-open for trouble she was sure was there. Xander softly tapped his Rise to boost his speed, while tightening Voyager on the immediate area. If nothing else, the last round taught him not to overextend himself, and he'd be damned before he let his weakness allow him to lose any more people. Therefore he was keeping a tight grip on his control and made sure not to overuse his psi. Rise was the most demanding, short of overusing his Burst abilities that is, since it was boosting his body beyond its normal limits. Thanks to Giles, Buffy and Faith though, he'd gotten used to a certain level of Rise and was able to keep it up for much longer than he originally was able to.

Using Rise alongside his Burst ability _Voyager_, however, was going to push the boundary a bit, not enough to cross it, but enough that he would be feeling the hurt in a few minutes if he didn't let up on one or the other, or both altogether. He was also going to hold off on using Farscape at all if he could help it. Unfortunately this was both Sunnydale _and_ Psyren, and he wasn't that lucky. Or if he was, it was all _bad_ luck!

He saw the weird demons Cordelia had been talking about several meters from their position through Voyager, maybe a minute away from them, but it was obvious that they had caught the drifters' scents and were closing in. They were ash-gray, same as that first demon that Xander had witnessed Giles disintegrate into nothing, only where that had been some kind of lizard-bull thing, these were like hairless apes or gorillas with devil-horns, tails, and glowing orbs sticking out of their chests. They also walked upright, like humans and vampires, and they were big. Big enough that Xander was quite sure he did not want to deal with all seven that were coming at them.

"Faith, we've got incoming," he whispered to the girl running beside him. "I'm going to try and run interference. Stick with the group, keep them together, and for the love of all that is holy, _listen_ to Cordelia! I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that, he jumped straight up and actually landed on the roof of the building they were running outside of. After that little stunt though, he quickly turned off his Rise and Voyager and took a few seconds to catch his breath and make sure nothing was 'damaged' so to speak. He couldn't just rest on his laurels however, and he quickly reactivated Voyager, making it semi-opaque so that it just looked like light fog or dust in the air. He quickly found the demons again and silently gulped. He wouldn't need psychic powers to see them soon enough, and the others weren't exactly moving fast. He needed to buy some time.

Taking a deep breath, and grateful that thanks to Voyager he knew _exactly_ where those creatures were, he reached out with _Farscape_ and cut the head off of as many as he could reach, which unfortunately turned out to only be two. It was as easy as imagining a razor thin line of psychokinetic force in their path and they literally walked right into it, right under their stubby chins. They didn't even have time to feel it let alone try to stop before their heads were literally rolling on the grounds. The others all stopped and stared at their decapitated brethren before glaring at one another and then started sniffing around like a pack of wolves.

He stayed as still as possible and watched them silently through Voyager. If it became necessary, he'd lead them away from the others, but he'd rather they just leave on their own, maybe even get scared away. Unfortunately, he knew demons better than that.

Rather than tighten up or even start looking in shadows for an unseen enemy, like he expected, they just lifted up the two fallen bodies and ripped out those glowing orbs from the corpses, after which said corpses instantly turned into dust. That wasn't what surprised Xander, seeing as he'd seen the same thing happen hundreds of times with vampires, but the way they seemed to protect and cover the orbs, like they were more valuable than their own bodies at the moment, _that_ surprised him. One thing to be grateful for, he had to admit, was that the two demons that had ripped out the orb things quickly moved off from the others and appeared to be heading away from the Drifters, which left them with just three to deal with.

That was OK. He and Faith could handle three of these things, and Cordelia... well, Cordelia knew enough in how to avoid getting killed.

One of Greg's first lessons in Trance-psi was basic telepathy. There were more advanced techniques, he'd told them, which allowed for either greater ease and security of mind-to-mind communication, an example of which Xander's _Vygr_ was. Still, in Cordelia's and Xander's first lessons with the experienced psychic regarding Trance, they'd both learned how to communicate telepathically at the least. It wasn't secure, and anybody or anything sensitive to psychic wavelengths would be able to hear them just as easy as someone listening to a shouted conversation across a silent canyon.

And given the fact that this was Psyren, he knew the chance of demons having just as much psychic sensitivity as humans wasn't worth debating. Or risking.

Taking one last look at the location of the Drifters and direction and path of the demons, Xander cut off Voyager and then refocused his energies. Taking a moment before he did this, after all he was more a Burst-type rather than a Trance-type, he concentrated and then from his finger tip, he sent out two tiny Trance-psi clouds, invisible to the naked eye but all-apparent to a psychic's sense and send each of them off in a different direction.

Moments later, he felt the Vygr-clouds connect with Cordelia and Faith's minds. Not enough for a full-depth scan, but enough for him to safely communicate with them.

_'Cordelia? Faith? You guys hear me OK?'_ he called to them.

_'Yeah, what's up? We kinda need to keep moving Xander!'_ Cordelia urgently replied.

_'Whoa, what the...? X-xan-Xander? Th-that you?'_ Faith hesitantly thought, disturbed at someone else suddenly being inside her head like this.

_'Yeah, it's me,'_ he answered, _'Look, don't worry Faith, I can't see or hear anything that you don't think __at__ me right now. Anyway, I've managed to take out some of the demons tracking us, and another two took off away from the group and where we're heading. That just leaves us with three of these things to deal with Faith. Cordy, any info on ways to ambush or avoid these things?'_

There was a brief silence along the three-way psychic connection, but he and Faith heard the seer's response soon enough. _'Two possibilities, outcomes seem to be about the same. We can either evade and the demons attack us later on, after we're in position to defend ourselves. Or, you and Faith can split off and ambush them while the rest of us get away. If you aim for the orb things and take them out as soon as you can and not mess around or anything with them, you can take them out and rejoin us before it's too late.'_

_'Too late? Too late for what?'_ Faith wanted to know

_'…'_ Cordelia's silence was almost as telling as her admitting that she didn't know.

_'Well screw this!'_ Faith exclaimed over the connection, _'Xan, you know where these things are? I'm not one to just sit back and let myself be attacked. I'm an action kinda girl, y'know?'_

_'Oh puh-lease!'_ Cordelia rolled her eyes, _'Stop flirting with my boyfriend. Cause guess what? He's __**MY**__ boyfriend!'_

_'Ladies, this is my connection, so please leave the cat-fighting for Tuesday night mud-wrestling.'_

He would have heard their comments to that, but he wisely terminated the connection and took a moment before refocusing his psi to his Rise and very soon was catching up with Faith and the demons that had passed him. He did have to make sure he stuck to the shadows though and even be careful about where he stepped lest he make the wrong kind of noise that would alert the demons of their plan.

Within moments he landed silently in the shadows of a half-fallen wall that was alongside the street that the three hairless albino gorillas were shuffling by on. He could sense Faith on the other side of the street, around an alley corner just out of sight. He briefly debated reestablishing his Vygr connection, but he soon realized that Faith was actually waiting on him, so he threw caution to the wind and went with surprise.

_'NOW!'_ he practically psi-shouted.

He leapt out from his hiding spot at the same moment Faith was running across the way to the startled demons. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were more startled by Xander's telepathic exclamation rather than the appearance of two humans attacking them. After all, they were three very large and dangerous looking demons, and humans generally elated the response of 'Lunch!' rather than surprise.

In hindsight, Xander would say that he knew that and did it intentionally. In the moment, however, he was just trying not to fall flat on his face as he lashed out with Farscape, using the precision that Greg had hammered into him during their recent training, and severed the heads off all three demons, and for good measure psycho-kinetically removed the glowing orbs from one of them. Faith, using a piece of re-bar she'd ripped out of one of the buildings, just went ahead and smashed the other two even before the heads had come fully off.

Silently, the two warriors watched as the demons vanished into dust. Xander glanced at the glowing orb still in his telekinetic grip, and then crushed it before dropping it to the ground. Faith looked at him, then shrugged. He shrugged back and then turned and started walking back into the shadows. She just nodded as they both raced to catch up with the rest of the drifters.

"Y'know, if you wanted to see me and your girlfriend wrestle around, all you had to do was ask," she teased just as they rounded a corner.

Xander gulped and made himself keep moving through sheer force of will and fear that if he stopped moving he'd be demon-bait before too long. He also wisely made the decision to remain silent while Faith laughed at him.

_The Bronze (or its remains)_

Cordelia gestured for the group to hold up for the moment. She then put her finger to her lips and gave Willow a significant look. Despite any animosity she had with her best friend's girlfriend, the redhead merely nodded and made sure everyone else got the message. They all needed to stay silent and as quiet as possible.

Then she gestured to two random guys and made to start opening the ironclad door to the Bronze. It took quite a lot of work and it was made no easier by having to be quiet the whole time either, but eventually they got inside and had the door closed up again. Just as they were about to seal it up though, Xander and Faith rejoined them with news that the demons tracking them weren't going to be a problem anymore.

"Unfortunately," Cordelia grunted, rubbing her head from the pain of near-constant visions for the past hour, "whatever you did just changed things. In a major way. We're going to get attacked, and if we want any of us to get out of this alive, we have to stay here for the next few minutes. Just until... just until help arrives."

"Cordy, here, sit down," Xander was by her side in an instant and was directing her to one of the worn couches that were still there, bolted to the floors around the lounge area. "Can somebody find some water?"

Everyone from there just kind of spread out. Willow and Amy raced for the bar area while Faith started checking the perimeter, making sure nothing could get in to kill them all. Jonathan had an idea and went to the restrooms and soon came back with a couple glasses and bowls of water, the glasses were found on the floor and the bowls used to be for peanuts and things. The water from the plumbing, while not clear and fresh, was at least drinkable.

"Thanks," she gratefully accepted the water. She paused over each one and then finally drank one from cigarette ash tray. "Might want to avoid drinking out of the glasses. You'll get diarrhea," she commented.

"Spooky," one of the adult men shivered and turned away.

Xander glared at him, but quickly pulled those he trusted closer to him and Cordelia while directing Jonathan to show some of the others where and how he got the water and to find more cigarette trays to drink with. He also advised everyone to rest up and to get their attention if they noticed anything at all.

Finally, it was just him, Cordelia, Faith, Willow and Amy on the couch, everyone else scattered about or keeping lookout. The Scoobs all kept their voices to a hushed whisper as they conversed.

"I may be wrong about this," Willow whispered, "but isn't the Bronze where the bad guys usually take hostages and we end up getting trapped or waiting for Buffy to save us?"

"Yeah, and isn't it kind of... not in the direction that you said we had to go towards, X?" Faith asked.

"Not by that much," Xander quietly defended himself.

"Look," Cordelia harshly whispered, then took a sip of water and rubbing her forehead, "I can't control these... visions. Not really. I just get flashes and suddenly I know stuff. And right now, I know that even now, if we went directly for the Gate, nearly every one of us would die. Including you Faith. We just need to... to wait. I _can't say_," she added with a glare at Faith, "what or who for, I just know that the one thing that will help us get back home alive will be coming here soon, so until then, we wait."

"For how long?" the dark Slayer wanted to know.

Cordelia's eyes glazed over for a moment, and then she snapped herself out of it. "Any longer than an hour and we're dead anyway. So... let's say three quarters of an hour. If no one shows up before then, well, we might as well make a run for it and at least some of us make it back."

"Sounds like a plan," Xander agreed.

"Fine," Faith scoffed, leaving Willow glancing nervously back and forth between the other three.

Fifteen minutes later, the natives were getting restless, so to speak.

"I don't see why we're listening to a bunch of kids in the first place?" one of the adults was saying.

"Do you see anyone else around that knows what they're doing?" Amy, who'd been standing nearby, defended them.

The five adults all glared at the young girl, probably trying to cow her, but she just kept up the glare and crossed her arms. A few of them actually backed down, but the one that had asked the first question scowled at her and stood up, as though to intimidate her.

"We certainly don't need a bunch of kids making decisions for us, that's for sure," he near-growled.

"Oh, so you want to die a horrible death or be left in this wasteland?" she countered.

"Well we certainly couldn't do any worse than what that group of misfits have done!"

"And they don't look like they know what they're doing any more than the rest of us," another of the adults, a middle-aged woman in a power suit, argued.

"I'll have you know..." Amy started to argue back, but then another of the adults pitched in and pretty soon the whole group was shouting arguments at one another, loud enough nobody could actually hear what was being said in the back and forth.

That is until they all suddenly started floating in the air, Amy included, some of them upside down or spinning round and round. Then all the screams and shouts turned into cries for help and asking what was going on. Amy was sat gently back on the ground as Xander walked up to the floating group and silenced them with a glare. Well that, and the fact that he was the one currently floating them all in the air.

"Are we done yet?" he asked in a quiet tone.

At the silent glares he received, he continued, "The reason I'm in charge is because I've been here before. I've survived long enough to get back home and do it again. If that's not enough for you, well then, the reason I'm in charge is because other than just leaving you behind, I can put you in traction without laying a finger on any of you if you don't do exactly what I say. Capisci?"

All five adults fearfully nodded their heads. Xander then dropped them on the ground, already refocusing his energies on the Voyager cloud he had around the Bronze. The guy that had been the loudest naysayer got up and was about to blindside him, except that Faith was suddenly there in his path and grabbed the guy by the throat, actually lifting him off his feet, despite that he had a good five inches on her.

"There's also me," she grinned at each of them and then casually tossed the guy back. He flew about seven feet before crashing and skidding along the floor to hit the stage.

"Well that was..." Faith started to say but Xander and Cordelia's looks of abject fear stopped her cold, "...fun? What is it?" she asked.

"Demons, lots of demons," the both of them said at the same time.

"I don't get it," Cordelia was shaking her head, "The demons aren't supposed to show up for another fifteen minutes or more. They're, the ones that help us, are supposed to show up first... This doesn't make any sense!"

"Those demons aren't hunting us Cor," Xander informed her. "They're running from something. We just happen to be in the way. I can see it now, there's a... What the?" He blinked and slapped his own head and blinked again. "There's a... a... a... zebra-striped van chasing them?"

"Oz?" Willow asked with a hopeful/fearful/curious tone.

"I'm not sure, I can't tell yet..." Xander concentrated harder on Voyager, his face scrunching up. Outside the Bronze, throughout the surrounding three-mile-diameter area (Xander's range had increased again upon returning to Psyren), a fog began to fill the area. It wasn't blinding, can't-see-half-a-foot-in-front-of-your-face, more like morning fog being burned away by the sun, but there is no sun yet kind of fog.

One of the things Greg had Xander practicing was the levels of intensity behind each of his abilities. This light fog was Voyager's medium setting, where the blinding fog was the extreme above 100% setting, and the invisible mode was the lowest setting. The lowest setting worked like a wall of security monitors in Xander's head, letting him see everything from every angle, but in low quality and only worth it if you're paying attention to it, or if something significant happens. The extreme setting, while great for cover, also showed Xander a level of detail of everything within and around the cloud to a degree even his own senses couldn't match. This medium setting he was using now was enough to give him color and sound, but still of only "standard definition" quality, which actually worked just fine for him, as it finally let him identify the drivers of the van, and that the demons were actually all mutant vampires and a whole lot of orb-chested demons, some of which he actually recognized as the same he and Faith had taken out earlier. Plus others.

The important thing though was who it was driving the van.

Xander started grinning and he didn't stop as he quickly walked to the half-destroyed stairs and made his way up to what was left of the balcony, and from there to the 'window' on the top floor, IE a hole in the wall that was a combination of rot and what could have been battle damage.

"Xander?" all the girls called. "What is it?" Cordelia demanded to know.

"Help!" he called down below, but with a grin on his face. "It's help! The help we've been waiting for. Faith, if you want to kick some demon ass, I suggest you grab what weapons you can find and meet me outside. Everybody else, stay inside."

"What is it? Who's out there?" one of the adults cried out.

"It's Buffy! And Giles, believe it or not! And Buffy is driving!"

Everybody that knew who he was talking about all blinked and then did a double-take. Then Faith remembered what he'd said at first and quickly grabbed a few improvised wooden stakes and a crowbar somebody had found behind the bar and made her way up to the balcony the same as Xander had.

"How can you see shit in this fog?" she asked once she was beside him.

"I'm the one making the fog, and the fog is how I'm seeing. One of my Burst abilities is _Voyager_, remember? That little cloud thing I showed off a while back?" he reminded her.

"Shit, for real?" she crassly questioned. He just grinned at her and nodded. "Shit," she repeated, this time with more than a small bit of awe.

The demons suddenly veered away from where they were heading, every last one of them now running straight for the Bronze. Or to be more specific, for Xander.

"Oh... snicker-doodle..." Xander grumbled, as he immediately dissipated Voyager. "They're tracing my psi! I didn't even know that could be done!"

"What's that mean?" Faith asked.

He looked her right in the eye and simply said, "They're coming."

Without another word, though he glanced back with a worried look at those waiting down below, he threw himself out the open hole and landed effortlessly on the ground outside. Faith's eyes went wide, not only at the feat, but the actions the man was taking.

"XANDER!" she called out in alarm.

"Faith? What's going on? What happened?" Willow demanded to know.

"Xander... he, he just jumped out the window!" she exclaimed, trying to understand what the guy was doing. He was Mr. Psychic Guy, yeah, but not even a month ago he was still a typical guy. That fought vampires and demons alongside the Slayer, sure, but still a typical guy. Typical guys did not run straight at an approaching demon hoard without a word, especially when he knew they were gunning for him in the first place. He knew that they had traced him, and thus he was the only one they knew was in here.

"Shit," she cursed, "This doesn't make any sense!" She ran her hand through her hair, trying to wrap her mind around the foreign concepts she'd tried to bury before. But Xander's... sacrifice, if that's what he had planned, reminded her far too much of that of her first Watcher, how she actually _made_ the vampires torture her and leave Faith alone until Faith could escape, right before killing herself so they could not turn her.

'_Not again,_' a voice whispered through her head. It was her own. '_Not again! Damnit! NOT AGAIN!_'

"Damnit!" she growled and grabbed the crowbar and the improvised wooden stakes she'd readied earlier and then dove out the hole in the wall after Xander.

Down below, Cordelia suddenly blinked as a brand new vision suddenly overcame all the information she'd been getting non-stop since she got to Psyren. "Oh," she said.

_Outside the Bronze_

_Psyren_

Xander had no clue what he was doing. Well, to be honest, he knew what he was _doing_, he just couldn't understand _why_ he was doing it. Maybe it was a 'saving-people' thing that hero-types were supposed to have. Funny, he could never quite remember telling Buffy that she had a 'saving-people' thing. Just as often as not, she had to be told, by either Giles or someone else, to do the responsible thing, which resulted in saving people. The rest of the time, she whined and complained about having to be responsible and how she wanted to be 'normal' and do 'normal' things all the time.

He heard Faith call out behind him, but he ignored it, boosting his speed with Rise and angling away from the Bronze, making sure that his psi-signature was nice and bright. The demons all immediately shifted towards his direction once more. Unfortunately, he did not notice one demon, at the rear edge of the hoard pause, it's head tilted back, like it was sniffing the air. It then broke off from hoard, heading back to the Bronze, two smaller demons trailing behind it.

Xander leapt over a small crater that might have once been the basement of a warehouse, a good thirty yards. Once on the other side, he high-tailed it for what used to be the nearest cemetery. The demon hoard didn't bother jumping the gap, they just ran down and back up out of the crater and along all sides. It wasn't until he got to an open space that was more sand and dust than ground that he got a good look at what kind of demons were chasing him.

He almost immediately wished he hadn't, because they were all identical to those demons that he and Faith had ambushed while covering for the others. The glowing orbs in their chests were worse than vampire eyes in the dark. The worst part was that he knew he wasn't good enough yet with Farscape to really do anything against them. Certainly not all of them.

He came to the cemetery barely a dozen yards in front of the closest demon. The ground had been eroded away and it was like a giant sandbox, except the sand was the dust and remains of once-living creatures rather than worn away earth and stone. It made running a lot harder that was for sure. The only thing marking it as a cemetery is the occasional headstone or grave marker he came across and had to jump over or use as a platform for getting past the next.

When the first of the demon hoard caught up with him, he'd been just over halfway through the sand trap. The lead demon had opened it's fanged mouth, the orb embedded in its chest flashed briefly before a sound knocked Xander face-first into the dust. Literally, the demon made a sound, the sound became visible light for the instant it traversed through the air, and then Xander was knocked out.

He wasn't dead yet though. It hurt too much for starters, and he was still aware. He was insensate and nothing was making much sense however. There were more loud noises and big shapes moving and getting closer to them. He knew they were bad but not much else, not even what they looked like and there wasn't much he could do about it anyway, his body wasn't moving right.

And then there were more noises, flashes of light, and then everything around him just seemed to dissolve while he heard a voice saying his name telling him it would be all right now. He knew he should recognize the voice but nothing was making any sense.

The last thing he was consciously aware of before blacking out was the pretty face of a blond woman kneeling down and looking him in the eyes before the voice told him to _sleep_...

_The Bronze_

_Same Time_

"Come on, let's go," he gestured to the rest of the adults while all the teen freaks were watching the chief freaks acting insane by leaping out a window.

"What?" they all whispered to him. There were about five others besides himself, the rest were all kids. He gestured and lead them to the back entrance, behind the stage.

"I took a good long look at that map before we left," he told them, "I know exactly where to go. Let the freaks stay behind and die for all I care. Freaks deserve to stay behind in this freaky world. I know the way, follow me."

They all hemmed and hawed for about the time it took him to actually walk out the door, and when he turned back around to check, they had all followed him. He smirked and nodded to himself. It'll serve that freak and his freak-bitch right, being left behind in this Godforsaken hellhole. That will show them.

He never saw what killed him, but all the rest did. They all died in silence, giant blue and black skinned creatures with fangs, red and yellow eyes and bat wings coming out of their backs snatched each of them up and pulled them under ground in the alley behind the Bronze, silencing their screams by wrapping their whole bodies in their wings.

Ironically, it was the humans who fell to dust when the vampires killed them.

_Inside The Bronze_

"Hey, uh," Jonathan stuttered, "Where did everybody go?" He pointed at the empty room behind them when Amy, Willow and Cordelia looked back at him.

"Oh, the vampires out back got them," Cordelia replied casually, taking another sip of water.

"V-v-vampires?" he stuttered again.

"Yeah, but they're mostly subterranean now," she shrugged, as though to say 'Vampires are weird, go figure!' or more likely 'Why are you still talking to me?'.

"We should probably go help... shouldn't we?" Willow offered.

Again, Cordelia shrugged. "Give them a few minutes. Slayers. Mucho aggression issues."

"But... Xander!" the redhead exclaimed.

"Buffy already saved him," the brunette answered simply, finishing off the last of her water with a grimace. "Besides, what can we do? I can barely levitate a pen, let alone do anything against super demons, and the rest of you don't even have powers worth mentioning. And while I'm not saying it for certain, I got a strong feeling that those orb thingies all the demons have got now? Make them part-immune, or at least really resistance to magic."

"Oh," Willow blinked, the last of her arguments disappearing like dust in the air.

"So... what are we supposed to do?" Jonathan asked.

"I don't know, why are you all looking at me?" Cordelia snapped at him.

"Because you're the one with psychic powers," Amy crossed her arms.

"Aren't you supposed to know what happens next?" Willow questioned.

Cordelia shrugged and started inspecting her nails. "Those of us still alive get to go home. You and Faith get your powers first, Jonathan next, Amy just after him. We go home _after_ you guys all wake up from your fevers, which is not fun by the way, and that's the last vision I had, like two minutes ago. Not a single one since. And let me tell you, it is a load off my mind."

"What was in the vision?" Willow demanded.

"Duh, I just told you," Cordelia shook her head, thinking how could the smartest girl on the planet be so stupid.

"I mean literally, what exactly was in the vision Cordelia?" the redhead persisted.

"Buffy rescues us, like always," she sighed. "We should probably be outside though. Faith has probably finished up with the demons that broke off from the main group, and while Buffy already knows we're here, I'd rather not have to be called lazy for not being on time."

"I think I liked you better when you were being helpful," Amy muttered under her breath as they all made their way to the front entrance/exit.

"You mean when I was being bombarded by so much information I could barely walk and talk, let alone do anything else but deal with it and the headache that came with it?" Cordelia returned in her normal biting tone of voice.

"Yes," Amy acknowledged at the exact same tone and volume.

Cordelia frowned, but shrugged, helping Willow and Jonathan get the barricaded door open so they could leave. Only to find that Faith hadn't _quite_ managed to finish off the demons as Cordelia had said.

"Whoa," the brunette psychic blinked, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach.

Blood was running down Faith's face, her hair was wild and there were several new tears and scratches on her clothing and body. The blood was actually coming from both an open gash running down from her temple to her cheek bone, as well as both of her nostrils. She had a nosebleed and from the way she was weaving from side-to-side, even when she wasn't dodging, it was clear that she was experiencing the full symptoms of the disease.

Around her, the four remaining demons of the half dozen that had broken off from the rest were looking only a little better than she was. And as the rest were able to witness that was because somehow the demons were regenerating so what few non-fatal wounds Faith had already inflicted on them were disappearing before their eyes.

"We've got to help her!" Willow cried out. Unfortunately attracting the demons attention.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Cordelia scoffed.

Two of the demons broke off and approached the helpless Drifters. "Oh," Cordelia blinked, as she realized Faith now only had to deal with two of the demons instead of all four, "Like that I suppose." She was already doing much better and had driven one of her two remaining opponents to its knees.

Jonathan and Amy both picked up a couple of bricks and anything else they could find to throw and started throwing it at the approaching demons. Willow closed her eyes and started to chant something under her breath, but no one could hear what it was. Cordelia looked around, fear inspiring her a little and came across a couple piles of shattered glass.

She shrugged to herself, thinking, '_What the hell? Right?_'

She focused, as Xander and Greg had shown her how to do. One shard of the broken window, no bigger than her own hand, if that much, shook and rattled a bit on the ground before lying still. The demons all turned their 'heads' towards Cordelia, allowing Faith to destroy the glowing orb of one of them, and took a step towards her. Ignoring the terrifying distractions, Cordelia kept her focus and ignored the tickling sensation coming from her upper lip, but Amy and Jonathan couldn't help noticing the drop of blood falling from Queen C's nose.

Finally, getting tired and frustrated with the slow way, Cordelia huffed and squinted her eyes hard at the piece of glass and angrily _ordered_ it to break open the glowing orb of the demon right in front of her. The window shard vibrated once, and then like it was shot out of pitching machine, it flew through the air and cut deep into the chalk-white flesh of the ape demon, right next to where the orb was implanted in its chest.

It paused and looked down at it and then looked back up at Cordelia and took another step towards her.

"Ah... shit," she cursed, just waiting for the end, while idly wondering how it was that she didn't see this coming. Why had she been so certain that they would be safe? That Buffy would come to their rescue? She'd been hanging around these losers for too long as it was.

The demons ignored the debris that Amy and Jonathan were throwing their way, and all Willow had managed to do was magically pick up a couple of stones and tossed them weakly against the orbs, not even scratching them. Cordelia thought of trying for another shot with the glass shards that were still laying around, but she felt the instinct that she wouldn't be able to pull it off in time and likewise that she was pushing what she could do already. They all backed up against the still standing wall of the Bronze, doing what they could, which really wasn't anything, to hold back the demons for as long as they could.

Right when Cordelia was ready to scream out for quite possibly the last time, something happened.

The demons all froze. Not just paused or stopped moving, it was like their bodies were stopped at a single moment in time and were not allowed to continue past it no matter what. And then it began. At first it was hardly noticeable, but as time passed, it became more and more apparent. The demons, giant hulking ape-like monsters, were getting thinner. And not just thinner, but smaller too. And then the first gash in their chalk-white flesh appeared and they watched as a cloud of what could only be blood flew up out of the wound and in a stream of flying particles disappeared behind the demons somewhere. Within moments of this, it was clear that the demons were being disintegrated before their eyes.

Following the trail of flying particles, they all stared as they saw a tall man with balding hair step out from the wasteland, both hands held wide before him. As he stepped closer they saw that he was wearing a brown leather jacket over what could have been either an old suit or improvised armor. It wasn't until the demons were almost all gone and he was right beside Faith that any of them finally recognized him.

"G...?" Faith gasped through the delirium of both pain and her fever.

"Yes Faith," the Englishman looked down at her with his blue eyes in an open and friendly smile, "It's me. Don't worry, I have everything in hand now. This will only take a moment longer."

"G-Giles?" Willow called out, both relief and worry in her tone. And then her nose gushed a bit of blood and she fell over. Well, if Jonathan and Amy hadn't managed to catch her that is.

"What's happening?" Jonathan asked, scared out of his mind.

"Told you," Cordelia shrugged, still getting over her own terror a bit, "Willow and Faith get their powers first, followed by you, then Amy. For some reason Xander an me didn't get this until six hours after we first got here, and then it lasted exactly three hours. Willow and Faith, on the other hand, have only been here for almost two hours, and they should be up and ready in about an hour... Provided Buffy's finished with the demons out there that is."

"Oh, not to worry," Giles smiled at all of them in turn, "A small group like that is nothing Buffy can't handle. She went to get Xander and is bringing him back now. Come along," he bend and helped Faith to stand. "I parked the van not too far away. We need to get back to our hideout."

"Hideout?" Cordelia asked, surprised. "Xander said you were living in the Library last time!"

"Hm, really?" Giles clucked his tongue. "And as I recall, he also mentioned that I was the only one of us left alive at the time. I believe that with your presence here, as well as Buffy still being very much alive and being the active Slayer, it's safe to say that Xander has indeed succeeded in changing the future. Such as it was. Now, come along, we haven't got much time until sundown."

"What happens at sundown?" Amy asked.

Cordelia blinked and suddenly saw black shapes overhead swarming anything and everything that moved, yellow and red eyes flashing at the heart of those shadows. Somehow, she instinctively knew that these were the vampires of this new age, the final and full effect of the disease on a vampire. Or rather... one vampire, who then went and started turning everything and everyone left in this world that wasn't already some other kind of monster. Not even other vampires had been safe from it's hunger.

"You don't want to know," Cordelia answered her for Giles as they reached the van. "Trust me, you do _not_ want to know..."

"Quite right," Giles confirmed as he slid open the door and gingerly helped Faith inside and then turned and helped Jonathan put Willow on the floor of the zebra-striped van as well. Cordelia got in the front seat, while Amy and Jonathan closed the side door once they were inside while Giles raced over to the driver's side and soon they were gunning the engine away from the Bronze.

"What about Buffy and Xander?" Cordelia asked the Watcher.

"Not to worry," he grinned at her again before turning back to the 'road' such as it was, "Buffy will probably beat us back to the hideout. And she'll take care of Xander, you have my word on that."

"OK then," Cordelia sighed and crossed her arms beneath her chest and settled back in the seat.

To Be Continued...

AN: Sorry for the cliffhanger and delay, no excuses. Next chapter will be posted as soon as it is written... whenever that may be. If you'd still care to guess what Willow's and Faith's and the rests powers are going to be, please feel free to keep up the discussion. Hopefully frequent discussion can keep me so inspired that I can't help but write the next chapter as soon as possible. We'll just have to see.


	6. The Journal

The Journal:

'_My head hurts,_' was Xander's first thought upon regaining consciousness. He wasn't fully awake yet, and he barely felt strong enough to keep breathing, let alone open his eyes and move around. Perhaps, it was thanks to this fact that he discovered what he did about himself when he did.

His eyes still closed, and the pain from his head throbbing and echoing throughout his entire body, Xander had no choice but to focus inward and sense what was wrong. It took him a bit longer than it should have, but he did come to realize through the muddled haze of pain that he really _was_ sensing what was wrong with his body!

A few moments focus, after this realization, and he had a sort of 'image overlay' of his body, much like how _Voyager_ or _Vygr_ worked, only this was of his own body. Pretty soon he took notice of numerous red areas spread out all over, but especially around his brain. A few seconds to analyze what he was sensing with what he knew of the human body as well as his own, and he determined that the redder the area, the more damaged it was. On the other hand, blue areas seemed to be perfectly healthy, while white-blue were the few (very few) areas where his body was actually in top performance perfection. Most of his body was various shades of yellow, orange and red however, with the only green and blues spotted here and there throughout.

The really cool discovery though? Something that he probably wouldn't have discovered for years without this particular incident? Seeing as he had nothing else but to sense what was happening in his own body, Xander tried to do some psychic training, and since his Burst powers didn't seem to be accessible, or practical since he was still practically unconscious, he focused on Rise. Immediately the image of his body lit up with all sorts of lights and unusual glows the moment he tapped into his Rise. He stopped instantly of course, and once he did, the image overlay went back to what it had been. Except for a few differences.

To begin with, the red around his head had remained the same, but throughout the entire rest of his body the red had faded to dark orange or very faded red. Even the green areas had turned a bit blue and the yellow a bit green. Not enough to make an overall difference, but enough that he noticed. So, deciding to experiment a little, Xander accessed his Rise once more, this time focusing exclusively on one red area, where it felt like he was bruised or something.

Within a few seconds of maintaining this new Rise power, the red had faded entirely to orange-yellow and was getting lighter by the moment. The only reason he stopped was because the red around his head had gotten a shade darker so it was almost crimson. Seeing that as a bigger problem than all the other bruises, Xander took the metaphorical deep breath and focused all his Rise on the red around and throughout his head. To his surprise, it didn't instantly clear up like the other red spots had, but it did start to clear up. At the least it wasn't getting darker anymore.

He spent what felt like several minutes focusing on just turning the red around his head lighter, and he succeeded, but not by much. Instead of an ugly dark red that it had been when he'd first come to, it was a bright amber with red tones highlighted here and there. Only after he'd taken a brief break from it did he finally notice that as the red around his head had gotten lighter, all of the red and orange parts throughout the entire rest of his body had lightened to a similar degree. He also felt better, but hungry too.

Sensing that he needed nutrients and food to keep it up, Xander resolved himself to waking up, but found that there was still something preventing him from attaining full consciousness. Searching for the answer in a similar way to how he used Voyager to search for a person or something very specific, he found that he was on the verge of having cascade seizures from numerous blood clots and concussions his brain had suffered. Focusing on his Rise once more, he forewent the 'overall' healing that he'd been employing so far and narrowed down on removing only that specific damage to his brain. A few minutes later, the blood clots were dissolved without complication and the concussion damage had been minimized to the point that he could let it continue healing on its own and he would be fine within a day at the most.

The moment the last of the red 'damage' had been turned at least to lite orange-yellow if not green in some areas, his perception shifted and he regained consciousness all at once. His eyes snapped open and he drew in a sharp breath, trying to figure out where he was and what was going on, as the last thing he could remember was being attacked by demons.

"About time," a very familiar voice said to him. "Was almost afraid I'd have to get one of the healers in here to Cure you. Had to do that already with Faith and you know how she felt... feels about strangers getting close to her. When did you learn to Recover anyway? Last time I saw you, you hadn't revealed that yet."

Xander blinked owlishly, looking around. He was in a small dark room, lit only be a couple candles in the corner and light from underneath the nearby door. He was laying on a fold-out cot, a ratty blanket thrown over him, which he had thrown off, and sitting next to him on a tiny stool was Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers in an old tank top, bloodstained pants that had holes here and there, mostly around the knees or waist, and with her hair grown out to mid-back length and held back in a simple ponytail, less blond and more dark than he'd ever seen it before. Oh, and she also had a myriad of scars along both arms, and one really noticeable one across her mouth and lips.

He blinked again and then whispered, hardly believing even as he did so, "B-Buffy?"

"Yeah Xander, I'm still alive," she grinned at him with a gentle smile.

Then he was hugging her and she was hugging him and nothing else mattered at that moment because they were both still alive and that was all that either of them cared about right now.

Finally, after some time, they released each other and wiped away the tears that weren't there because they absolutely were not crying at all. Xander sat back and took in his 'new' old friend, as Buffy did the same. Then he remembered what she'd said to him before their emotional moment.

"Recover? Is that... is that what I was doing?" he asked her. "I only just now figured out how to do it."

"Oh, well," she seemed surprised and then shrugged it off, "It's a Rise power. Basically it's when you psychically force your body to heal faster than it normally would automatically. There's an off-shoot of it called _Cure_ where you basically force the same thing to happen in somebody else. We've got a few Healers that specialize in both Cure and teaching Recover to everyone here. Took me about a year to learn it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he exclaimed, waving his hands for emphasis, "Others? A _few_? _Everyone_?"

"Oh, right," she pouted cutely in that way when she was remembering stuff she should have already been aware of, "Giles had mentioned that he once thought when you first came here that there were very few or no Survivors at all. Guess you're in for a treat then."

"How many?" was his only question as they both got to their feet.

"Not many," she sighed, the weight of the years showing in both her eyes, "Only a few hundred, not yet a thousand. But we keep an eye out and others still alive show up every once in a while. We're outside of Sunnydale right now, out in the desert actually."

This was demonstrated for the time-traveling psychic when they stepped outside and he found that he'd actually been in a trailer-home that was just one of several hundred, all under the dark-glowing skies of Psyren, but just as clearly that they were in the desert, judging by the mountains in the distance and the sand beneath their feet. The light he'd seen earlier was from the many campfires and barrel-furnaces that filled every open space where there was room for people to stand or sit.

"Whoa," Xander said again.

"Yeah, and the cool part?" Buffy told him as she lead the way past several trailers and groups of people, "Every single person here? Full-on psychic."

The mere concept nearly knocked Xander off his feet, but then he thought it through and he had to nod his head. "Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense. After all this is..." Xander choked and nearly bit his tongue as he fought Nemesis Q's warning.

"Psyren," Buffy answered for him. "We live here Xander, we know what this place is. Don't know why or how you came to be here or if you can go back or even if you could take people with you. Don't care or want to know in particular myself, and Giles has forbidden anyone from talking to you or your group without either me or him being there. Besides, the game isn't too hard to figure out once you know enough of the facts."

"Glad you did," Xander sighed in relief as the warning passed. "It was getting... hard not to be able to tell you guys. You've got to believe that."

She shot him an understanding look, but continued leading them through the masses. "Don't worry about it Xander. If anyone, I certainly understand the need to keep a big secret. When did Willow become involved?"

At that, Xander let out an angry breath/sigh and his steps became more than a bit aggressive. After a moment to stew, or at least long enough that he was sure he wasn't going to shout, he answered, "She just showed up for this... round." He'd briefly worried he'd get warned again, but recalled that it was Buffy who had used the word 'game' and so he figured it was safe enough. "Her and Faith and everyone else. Did... did everyone make it?"

"Cordelia told me that about six people got taken by the vampyres under the Bronze. We, Giles and me, managed to find one other person besides you, Amy, Cordelia, Faith, Jonathan and Willow. Kind of funny who it is though."

"Who?" he asked, trying to recall who had been in the group he'd been trying to lead, while still regretting the needless loss of life.

"Don't worry about it Xan," she told him sympathetically, "It wasn't your fault a bunch of morons decided they'd rather go out on their own than follow the orders of a high school kid. Scott Hope."

"What?" He was confused, both by her responding to his thoughts and by the name.

"Yeah, one of my ex-boyfriends from high school. Thought he'd been gotten by a vamp or something, but now I know better, huh? Says he followed you guys to the Bronze and he just stayed hidden once you and Faith jumped out to fight the Hoard and the morons decided to sneak out the back. Giles found him and brought him with us. He wasn't hurt, so he's been at the Base while the rest of you were healed up."

"I didn't see him there," Xander remarked, sounding surprised at his own admission.

"Yeah, well, despite looking like he's still in High School, he doesn't exactly look like himself," she grimaced at the admission.

"What do you mean? And what base?" he asked.

"This one," she said as they rounded one last camper/trailer and they found themselves at brick-and-mortar barb-wired wall, the main gate of which was guarded by soldiers in fatigues with odd-looking rifles. Behind the wall, he saw after the guards nodded Buffy past them, was a two-story building that looked like it was a recent construction. A recent construction made from very old materials and equipment.

There were also open air canvas tents and tables and lots and lots of people going about. If he didn't know any better, he'd swear he'd just walked onto the set of a Vietnam or WWII movie. Or maybe even into the actual places those movies portrayed.

"C'mon," she waved him past all that and into the building itself.

Inside, it was all solid and bare concrete. No amenities, nothing frivolous or unneeded at all, pure function and necessity. The corridors were wide enough for four very large men to walk comfortable shoulder-to-shoulder, but it was still cramped as people ran from one room to the next, of which, Xander discovered there were only about four per floor. The surprising part, to Xander at least, was that there were more than just the two above-ground floors. There were actually eight sub-floors, the building extending all the way to the bedrock beneath the desert sand, making it a ten story building, and from the look of it, made by the military.

"What is this place?" he asked as they came to the stairs leading upstairs.

"Giles and Greg got together after... well, after the world became Psyren and built this place. What gave everybody psychic powers had already happened, so Giles was able to help out in a lot of ways. There were a few others that I got to know that joined us and helped out. Unfortunately they were called away and had to leave after a while, but they made sure this place was functional as a Base of Operations and refugee camp. I hear back from them every once in a while. They're out there, finding other survivors, building more refugee camps and bases and trying to rebuild."

"So... what happened?" the question that had plagued Xander from the moment he'd first set foot onto Psyren's soil begged to be answered.

"I'll... let Giles answer that for you," she replied after some hesitation.

They reached one of the larger rooms in the building, and when Buffy opened the door, Xander was almost surprised to see what looked like a stereotypical military conference room, just with no technology other than torches or gas lamps or other forms of illumination. Everyone in the room turned to look at the new arrivals, and grins and other signs of relief shown at the sight of Xander walking around.

"Xander!" Willow shouted, jumping up from her seat and running at him to give him a glomping hug.

"Hey X! Looking good!" Faith called from her seat, which she was currently leaning way back in, her feet up on the conference room table. "Y'know, considerin' the last time I saw you, you were comatose an' shit."

"Xander!" Cordelia glomped his other side, having been a few seats down from where Willow had been.

"Uh... Buff?" Xander looked back and forth between everyone in the room and his escort, "How long was I out? Cause I'm thinking more than a few hours."

"Try three days you big dummy!" Cordelia let go and slapped him on the shoulder for good measure.

"Wh-what? Three days?" he shouted, forcefully pulling Willow off of him and looking to Buffy and Giles for an explanation. "What about... what about...?" he started to ask, and then looked to Cordelia.

"Giles is the one that told you about it, remember?" she reminded him.

"Yes, but that was an alternate version of me," the current Giles pointed out. "I have not personally come across any... Psyren Drifters I heard you call yourselves, but we've deduced from Xander's... prior experiences that he did meet me here, in the future and supposedly I assisted him in returning because that alternate version of me had seen and assisted other Psyren Drifters before him."

"Giles!" Xander shouted, racing forward and embracing the man. "You're not crazy!"

"Er... not as such, no," the Englishman uncomfortably endured the embrace.

"Sorry," Xander immediately let go of the much older man. His hair was much grayer and a bit longer, a bit more unkempt then he kept it as when he was the High School Librarian. He was wearing leather armor and bits of chain mail and steel plate armor here and there, and there were as many wrinkles in his face as he'd seen the last time, but no beard and his hair wasn't greasy/unwashed either. The important thing though was that there was no crazy in his eyes.

"Sorry," he apologized again, and then took the seat that Cordelia and Willow dragged him to, right between them at the other end of the table. "But, uh, about the Gate?"

Cordelia shrugged. "The visions have calmed down now, I'm only getting them when I either need to know something about the future and I really concentrate on it, or I'm touching something or somebody and then I get the crazy past and future vision mixes. So far, we get to go back home. But I'm not seeing how or if all of us make it or not. Just that... we do... somehow..."

"That's all right Cordelia," Giles patiently comforted the young girl, "Of the number of psychics with True Visions, most can rarely make much sense of all the information at the time they receive it. Some try and piece together the puzzles by trying to get multiple visions to assist them, giving them more information. Most, unfortunately, tend to ignore their visions and either go mad or are killed in some fashion. Most often through suicide I'm afraid."

"G-man, what are you saying?" Xander accused.

"I'm saying that Cordelia is a strong young woman and she's no longer alone in the world, and I strongly suspect that none of us shall allow her to ignore her visions to the degree that she'd rather kill herself than continue having them and helping us save people," he confidently answered.

"Oh," Cordelia blushed and ducked her head, especially after she got similar confident looks from the others at the table.

"Now, to business," Giles nodded to Buffy, who locked the door and took her seat at Giles' right hand.

"Business?" Xander repeated.

"You haven't told us anything about the game you're involved with Xander, and we're not going to ask you about it, nor will we invade your privacy and try to ferret out the information from you about it," he explained.

_Which we could do_, a voice echoed throughout all their minds. Buffy's voice. But she had not spoken out loud.

"Telepathy?" Willow confirmed, intrigue and curiosity filling her eyes.

"It's a long story," Buffy shrugged, "buy yeah. I'm intentionally not entering your minds. Big hint though, when you see Greg again, get him to teach you mental shielding. It will help a lot."

"Right," Xander nodded, making a mental note to do just that.

"Nevertheless," Giles brought attention back to him, "We have managed to theorize and figure out much of what this game you are involved with is about and some of the rules as well. The secrecy is no doubt to limit the amount of external influence that can affect the timeline. And yes, we are aware that the ultimate objective of the Psyren cards is to affect and change the future by having you, Psyren Drifters, going back and forth between the future and the past. Already things have undoubtedly changed a great deal."

"So, uh, how do you guys feel about that?" Willow asked quietly.

"We're going to help you do it," Buffy answered.

"Please understand, while this is our present and the moment you go back it's very likely that we'll cease to exist, especially as you'll be changing the past," Giles went on, "everyone here, every survivor, every living human being _wants_ you to succeed in changing the past. Hopefully to the point at which you can prevent... prevent the Event."

"Event? The event that created Psyren?" Xander leaned forward, eager to hear it.

"It was an asteroid," the Watcher told them. "Nothing demonic or magical about it. Merely a giant rock hurtling through space that abruptly altered its course sometime in 2010 and headed straight for the planet. By that time, every nation on the planet had fair warning and a unified effort was put into motion and nuclear strikes destroyed the asteroid in High Earth Orbit.. But that was not the end of it."

"You see the sky outside?" he gestured absently towards the ceiling.

"The unknown gas that dissolves the natural blocks in human brains, that stuff that gave me and Cordelia and... well the rest of us psychic powers," Xander exclaimed.

"Exactly," Giles nodded gravely. "As near as we have been able to deduce, it covers the entire planet, the largest mass of which is centered around what used to be Japan, but there is no doubt that it does indeed cover the entire planet. There have also been theories that we're not dealing with some sort of nebula gas that had been trapped inside the asteroid _Ouroburos_, but actually an alien entity. A creature that is large enough and complex enough that it actually covers the entire planet and intentionally releases a gas that will trigger psychic phenomenon in all living creatures on the surface of the planet."

"Whoa," Xander said after some time to absorb the information.

Willow as deathly pale, Faith looking a bit green, and Cordelia was tight lipped and looking faint. The other Drifters; Amy, Jonathan and Scott Hope looked little better and were staying quiet at the sides of the table.

"But, as I recall," Giles continued, "you disappeared sometime in 1999, and there's not much you can do about that just yet. So, Buffy and I have devised a... a sort of back-up plan, for when you arrived."

"Back-up plan?" Xander looked up.

"Yes," he grinned and then reached into a satchel and pulled out an old and worn leather book.

"What is that?" Cordelia was the first to ask. She couldn't say why, but it gave her a weird feeling. Not necessarily a bad one, but it made her uncomfortable for some reason.

"A Diary," Giles answered straightforward. "A Watcher's Diary, much like what I once had you all reading through whenever we needed to do research on a new threat. To be more specific, this is _my_ diary."

He gave them some time to process that bit of information, and then picked it up and tossed it to Xander.

"I want you to take it back with you. Take it back and give it to my younger self," he explained.

Xander blinked a couple times, all of them thinking about what they were being asked to do. Finally, he shrugged and pocketed the book in the back of his waistband. "OK, " he finally said.

"R-really? Th-that's it? You're not going to argue about altering history, or messing with the space time continuum? Or even question what it is I'm sending back with you?" he seemed surprised.

"No, not really," Xander shrugged, as did everyone else at the table. "Besides, would you send yourself wrong information in your very own Watcher's Diary?"

"Of course not!" Giles was affronted at the suggestion.

"See, told ya," Buffy smugly said to Giles.

He grumbled for a bit, but finally just let out a heavy sigh and sat down once again.

"As for the rest," Xander said with a shrug, "I figure you've had who knows how many years to think this over, and you were always way smarter than me, so who am I to argue with Mister Watcher?"

"Ah, yes, well..." Giles trailed off uncomfortably.

"So, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, how about we figure out how the hell to get back home, huh?" Faith said to everyone in the room.

"Well, that should be the easy part," Xander said, leaning forward. "We already know where the goal is, we just need Buffy and Giles to get us there."

"I'm... afraid that may be more difficult than you realize," Giles said after some trepidation.

"Yeah, uh, while we're sort of honorary commanders and whatnot here," Buffy said, "Neither one of us is actually the leader of this refugee camp. In fact, we're nowhere near the top of the chain of command. More upper-middle-management."

"So... no help?" Cordelia asked.

Buffy grimaced, while Giles started cleaning his glasses.

"It's actually a great deal more complicated than just that, I'm afraid," the Englishman muttered.

"In what way?" Willow asked.

Rather than from Giles or Buffy, the answer came from the opening and slamming of the door to the room. The door had already been unlocked it seemed, so it was not damaged. In walked three very officious looking people, (which apparently one or more of them had a variation of telekinesis), one of which in an actual military uniform, albeit fatigues with a couple insignia on the collar, but military all the same. Ironically, this person happened to be a 5'9" pixie-cut blond woman with intelligent blue eyes.

"General Carter," Giles said, surprised.

"Sam," Buffy nodded to the woman, and then the two men on either side of her. "Daniel, Will."

"Are these them?" the 'General' asked, looking more than a bit harried.

"Sam," the brown haired, glasses-wearing geek on her left admonished her.

"Sorry, but are these people the Drifters?" she asked again.

"Yes, and you are?" Xander stood up.

"General Carter, Commander of the Western Region Camps, generally known as California," she answered him shortly. "So you're from the past then? And you intend to return there via some sort of gateway?"

"Sam!" this time the brown haired, glasses-wearing geek on her right warned her off.

"No Will!" she snapped at him, "We need to know what this is all about. And these people have answers! Answers that we need!"

"Answers that could kill them! We've seen it happen before!" he argued back.

"Well Mister Giles here seemed to have figured a way around that, hasn't he?" the General lamented.

"Yeah, by figuring it out on his own!"

"Shut it Zimmerman!" she snapped at the geek on her right. "And you too Jackson!" she said, pointed at the geek on her left.

They both held up their hands in surrender.

"Now then, I want some answers!" she turned back to the room, only to find Xander right in front of her with his arms crossed.

"Now I realize," he said to her quietly, "that you must be under a great deal of stress. I further realize that every human alive here has psychic powers and probably a lot of years on me in experience. But unless you want to see what I can really do lady... keep up with acting like my High School Principal."

Behind him, Buffy stifled a laugh, though barely.

General Carter glared over at the Slayer, before rounding on Xander.

"I want to know everything there is to know about Nemesis Q and how he travels back and forth through time, and I want to know where the psychic behind Nemesis Q is hidden," Carter demanded.

"I'd like peace on Earth and every demon in Hell to die and stay there," said Xander. "Unfortunately, Giles tells me that's not happening any time soon."

The blond General stared at him for exactly three heartbeats before squinting her eyes and snapping out with her arm in a blur of motion.

"SAM!" Daniel cried out.

"CARTER!" Will shouted at the same moment.

Xander held the General's open palm by the wrist, seemingly with no effort, though nearly everyone in the room could feel the strength behind the two of them. Brown eyes stared into blue eyes and vice versa. Suddenly Samantha Carter smirked and whispered, "Fool."

Xander had only one thing to say in reply. "_Vygr!_"

"Xander! No!" Buffy screamed.

It was too late of course, not that it made a bit of difference.

Samantha Carter was what science fiction writers would call a technopath, her psychic talents included, but were not limited to, communicating with numerous forms of electronic (and other energy-types) equipment and anything they controlled or were connected to. This sometimes included the human brain.

Xander's Trance attack, however, went straight for the mind and bypassed the brain entirely. It could even be argued that it worked on the soul first and everything else second. So what defenses General Carter had on her mind, which were based on the electrical current on her own brain, did little to stop the intrusion. Thus, Xander got into her mind.

Unfortunately, this did nothing to protect his own mind.

_Fool_, the word echoed throughout Carter's mind, reverberating into Xander's via Vygr. He was too busy sorting through and searching her recent memories and thoughts to ask her what she meant by that. She launched her own Trance attack accordingly.

"_Viral Entity_!" she whispered/thought and sent out her own Trance powers to attack Xander's mind. Only to encounter unknown resistance in the first few moments.

_**I AM THE ALPHA**_

Something was protecting Xander's mind. Something primal. Something powerful. Something he didn't even know about.

It was an entirely instinctual defense, originating from deep within his subconscious, hidden away in the shadows of his own mind. He certainly wasn't consciously aware of it, which means it was not a Program, which was both a good thing and a very bad thing as far as General Carter was concerned. The good part, the only good part, was that Xander was not fully aware of her intrusion into his mind and was not directing the defenses. That it was not a Program meant that it was not limited by set parameters or rules and its only prerogative at the moment was protecting it's 'territory' IE Xander's mind.

She tried a different approach, going in through the nervous system of his outermost extremities, his arms and legs. This time she came across something she was very familiar with, military training warfare images pounded against her probe and slowed her down, making her walk through battlefields and tortures and training scenarios straight out of boot camp. None of it stopped her, but it did slow her down. It seemed that with each new nerve cluster she got past, a new mindscape would pop up in her path.

It was exhausting her reserves, and she almost abandoned it for some other way in, save that she was making actual progress, which she had been unsuccessful in doing with a brute force attack. By the time she'd reached his brain, she was winded and about to collapse, but she had reached her goal. Only to meet up with one last line of defense.

A young man, not Xander, stood in her metaphysical way. He was tall, lanky, had dark hair, dark eyes, and a determined expression set in his face.

"Hi," he said genially with a lopsided grin, "My name's Jesse."

And then she was violently and forcefully ejected from Xander's mind and body. She flew back from him and slammed painfully against the concrete wall.

"SAM!" Buffy, Daniel, and Will all screamed out at once. The two men were immediately at their friend's side and helping her to her feet.

Xander blinked and shook himself awake. Vygr had been suddenly disconnected, though he couldn't explain how or why just yet, but he'd found what he'd been looking for. He had been hoping for more or better, but he'd expected worse. As it was, General Carter's "plan" to have Cordelia and him stick around and even be "reprogrammed" to be loyal soldiers _willing_ to stay in this apocalyptic future wasn't evil per se, just incredibly selfish and narrow-minded. But then again, having lost her father and then her fiance/husband on the same day in the same way can do stuff like that to a person.

"Come on guys," he said to his fellow Drifters, "We're leaving. Right now."

"Xander..." protested Giles.

"We're not staying here another minute," said Xander. "If you have any hope of me delivering this diary to your younger self Giles, you're going to help us get to where we need to go."

"Ah, yes, but, well, that is..." stuttered Giles as he was dragged out of the room.

"Oh come _on_ Giles!" sighed Buffy as she continued dragging him along.

"You do realize that you two will be committing the equivalent to treason if you help them escape, right?" Daniel asked.

"Then I'll just go out and kill demons day and night until they know to stay away from me, and then everybody will follow me instead of the military," Buffy answered straightforward. "And good luck talking Giles into not following me."

Both men glanced at each other, shrugged and then picked their commanding officer up. "We'll help her to her barracks, it's been a long day for her," Will said. "Good luck."

"Thanks!" Xander waved. He then gestured to the rest and lead the way out of the room.

Only to be stopped by the armed guards on either side of the door. "Uh, hey guys I—" he started to say, but they suddenly froze and stopped moving altogether. "—Uh guys? Well that's new. What the heck did I do to them?"

"Nothing Xander," Giles said with a heavy sigh, shoving his way past the young psychic. "Buffy, however, has temporarily paralyzed everyone in the camp, and for those that she cannot, she explaining why it is a good idea to let us go."

"Whoa," Xander demonstrated his 'Joey Russo' impression. When his blond friend came out, he asked her, "Buffy, you can do stuff like this? Since when?"

"Since..." she hesitated, and then answered, "Since before Psyren. You'll find out eventually."

He frowned, but decided it would be wise not to press too much.

An hour later, they were leaving the refugee camp in Oz's van, which now apparently ran off of water thanks to Giles' powers. It also had no exhaust so there was never any need to fuel it up. Just put someone with a power similar enough to Giles in the van and they made it go.

"That was the weirdest thing I've ever seen," Scott was still saying. He was talking about all the still-as-statue people in the camp that a few minutes prior had been full of life and activity. Buffy herself, who was solely responsible for all this, just shrugged it off and said she didn't like to do stuff like this.

"Wow, you haven't been in Sunnydale long, have you?" questioned Faith.

"Uh, I was born there," said Scott, a little put off by the hot brunette. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Only that that's the twentieth weird thing that I've seen this week, and that was before coming to Psyren," Cordelia answered, examining her nails and mentally preparing to go to the salon the minute they were back in their own time.

It took them almost half an hour to get from the Compound to the van. It was a very creepy walk, that's for sure. All the people around them, still as statues. Except for a handful that is. Other telepaths or psychics that were just plain too powerful for Buffy to control that way. Instead she controlled them a different way, the same way she used to use on Giles and others before she ever had any powers, psychic or otherwise. To their immense surprise, there was someone waiting by the van when they got there. In fact he already had it gassed up and running and a clear stretch back to the city.

"OZ?" Willow shouted and rushed forward, hugging her boyfriend... give or take a few decades.

"Hey Willow," the werewolf said with a laconic smile. "Good to see you." Then he turned around and got into the driver's seat.

"Oz?" the young redhead whimpered.

"You've been gone a long time Willow," Giles attempted to comfort the young girl. "All of you have been."

"But... but... but..." pouted Willow.

"Wills, not the time," said Xander, moving his friend into the van. "I'll give directions. Giles... Buffy... Oz, I..."

"Just make it worth it, my boy," Giles clapped him on the shoulder and then got into the back after helping Buffy into the front passenger seat and strapping her in.

"Why does Buffy get to sit in the front?" huffed Cordelia as she climbed into the back alongside everyone else. It was tight fit with nine people and no seats. Plenty of padding though.

"Because she's the only thing keeping the army from coming after us to kidnap and brainwash the lot of you," answered Giles. To which Cordelia replied with a quiet, and embarrassed, "Oh."

An hour and ten miles later, Buffy frowned up in the front seat and then turned around to inform everybody, "I'm letting the camp go now. Sam's awake. She's also one of the few people that I can't control like that, so it's best if she not know how far we took things. She's..." she trailed off and her face grew grave. Xander and Cordelia's heads snapped up and back in the direction towards the refugee camp. They exchanged looks and focused back on Buffy, while the rest of the van silently wondered what was going on.

"Dare I ask?" Giles quietly put forth to his charge.

"A whole lot of... shouting," answered Xander.

"Of the mind kind," Cordelia added, absently rubbing the side of her forehead.

"I'm hearing... whispers?" Jonothan suddenly spoke up.

"I can't hear nuthin'," said Faith.

Xander grinned and shot Giles a look and shrugged. "Trance type," they both said together.

"Wait, trance what?" Scott Hope interrupted. Having been quiet for most of this, he'd finally had about enough and he wanted answers. "What is even going on here? Why are we running from the military in the first place? I mean... they're the military for crying out loud!"

"Wow, right on time too," Cordelia commented while looking at her watch. "I was starting to wonder about this guy too."

"Uh, Cordy, is there something you'd like to share?" Xander asked his girlfriend.

"Wait for it," she smiled at him.

Before he could ask anything further, Scott surged forward and grabbed Xander by the shirt and shoved him to the back doors of the van, but thankfully they held. Xander was startled, and unable to concentrate, only able to react and none of his reactions included using psychic powers. Or more like he restrained himself from using his psychic powers because anything he would do would damage the van and potentially harm his friends in the process.

"ENOUGH! I WANT THE TRUTH! No more games! No more lies! What is going on here? I shouldn't even be here!" Scott shouted into Xander's face.

"XANDER!" Willow, Amy, Jonothan, Faith and even Buffy screamed. Their friend and fellow psychic held up his hand, stopping them from doing anything. He also noticed Cordelia calmly examining her nails... and was holding very tightly to the side of the van.

Ignoring the screaming teenager in his face, Xander silently activated Voyager and took a look around what was immediately outside the van.

"Uh... Xander? You mind?" Oz called from the front. Xander appropriately moved his psychic cloud away from being in front of the windshield. "Thanks."

That's when he saw the demons. Not attacking, or even noticing the humans at all. They were actually flying overhead inside of the glowing cloud layer. If you could call it flying. He focused back on Scott and switched from using Voyager to Farscape in a heartbeat. "You want to know what this is all about Scottie?" he asked as he unlocked and opened the door behind him while also holding his feet to the floor of the van with Farscape. "Take a look and wake the hell up!" He grabbed Scott and held him fast before falling backwards, only his powers keeping him and Scott with the van as they went over a really steep hill. Scott, of course, started screaming the minute Xander made to throw him out of a moving car, until he realized that Xander was actually holding onto him and keeping him from going flying... and pointing... up?

He looked up at where Xander was pointing and started screaming again, but for whole different reasons.

A minute later they were back in the van with all the doors locked and secure. Scott was shivering where he sat and Xander was back beside Cordelia, looking more annoyed at the whole experience than anything else. Jonothan and Amy hoped they didn't have to go through their own experience of hanging outside of a moving car while staring up at a giant demon that looked like nothing but giant tentacles hanging there in the sky. Of course each of them had their own experiences with the supernatural already and knew enough that they didn't need a 'Xander Harris Wake Up Call' as it were.

"What-what-what was-was th-th-that?" Scott stuttered as he shivered in his corner of the van.

"More to the West now, Oz," Xander directed, ignoring the other teenager.

"One of the Old Ones," Giles answered instead. "A number of them got out when some extremely foolish warlocks got it in their minds to try and summon them to stop Ouroburos. Not that it would have done any good, but all it did accomplish was more death and destruction sooner rather than later. And then Ouroburos came anyway and something rather remarkable happened."

"What's that?" asked Willow.

"The Old Ones all stopped moving once they were enveloped in the new atmosphere encompassing the planet. It took some time for me to contact the remaining mystics of the world, but we determined it beyond all doubt. The Old Ones are brain dead. Their bodies live, and still move occasionally, involuntary movements entirely I assure you. But there are no minds behind the beastly bodies. So now that they are finally free, they find themselves as good as imprisoned in their own bodies. Rather fitting, I suppose."

"Which just leaves us with the half-breeds and earth demons... whom apparently have psychic powers of their own," said Jonothan, to the surprise of most.

"When can we go home?" Scott asked in a small voice.

"As soon as we get to where we're going," answered Cordelia. Xander shot her a look, but she just shrugged and looked back. "What? If somebody didn't answer him, he was just going to keep asking, and I don't need the headache!"

"We may have a problem," Oz said from up front.

"I don't think it's a problem," she said to him. "It's not a problem!" she called back to the rest of them.

Spread out before them was a beach, and the ocean not too much further ahead. About a quarter mile into the ocean was a sandbar, and on that sandbar they could all see a phone booth. All the Drifters recognized it instantly, it was the Gate. On the beach, however, was about a hundred to two hundred 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' sea monster demons. They actually looked a lot like the mutated swimmer's of Xander, Buffy, and Willow's Junior Year, when Xander had briefly gone undercover on the Swim Team. From the looks of it, either someone had tried recreating the same experiment that had fallen into the hands of a High School Swim Coach, or those three that had gotten away had 'gotten busy' with some other fish or other unfortunate victims, either way there was a lot more than just one or two demon fishmen to deal with. Well, them and a quarter mile of ocean with not a boat between them.

Oz slowed the van to a stop, where the road ended and the beach began. The demonic fishmen were already shambling towards them. Thankfully they weren't too fast on land.

"Oh," muttered Cordelia as she looked out the window at the scene before them. "I'd wondered what that was about..."

"You had a vision about this?" asked Giles, sounding intrigued.

"Um, yeah, a while ago, when we were still at the Bronze, when I was still being bombarded by visions of everything that could happen to us here. These... things, guest starred in a couple of them."

"Really, what-what happened?" asked Willow.

Cordelia frowned, her eyes no longer seeing the scene in front of her, but something else entirely. Finally she answered, "You don't want to know. And... uh, don't let them bite you. Or sting you. The females... and yes, there are females out there, have stingers that fill you up with eggs that sort of eat their way out of you within a day or two. And Xander... I swear if you let so much as one of those things take any of us, I'm going to kill you."

"I can't read these things," Buffy announced, her voice as serious and dark as Cordelia's. "There's nothing human in them at all. They're not Taboo either."

"Well that's a small relief at least," said Giles.

"What is... taboo?" Willow asked, curious.

"How do you guys want to play this?" Xander interrupted Giles' answer, feeling they did not need to know at the moment.

"What happens when they scratch you?" Oz asked, keeping his eyes on the approaching hoard.

"Poison. Acid. And they still use the corpse to make more of them by pumping it full of eggs. I think it paralyzes you too," Cordelia answered.

"I got this," said Oz, getting out of the van. He slowly started stripping off his clothes as he walked towards the demonic fishmen.

"Uh..." Xander pointed.

"Don't worry, he's got this," remarked Buffy. "They're brainless, literally, and not nearly as dangerous as a werewolf."

"In particular a psychic werewolf, who learned how to control the wolf long before the world became Psyren," Giles added.

"Who also happens to be one of the best Rise users in the world. I actually have to go all out to beat him these days," said Buffy.

"Uh, what's rise?" asked Jonothan.

Right at that moment, Oz transformed. Without a full moon in sight. The demonic hoard stopped moving forward and those closest even turned right around and started shuffling back to the ocean as quickly as they could. It wasn't quick enough.

Oz's werewolf form used to look like a caveman in a fursuit with fangs instead of teeth with black on black eyes. That was before he learned how to control the wolf. Over the years, he managed to control and shift what features were more prominent and even how much showed at a time. And then Ouroburos covered the planet and after Oz recovered from the psychic-power-giving disease, his werewolf form changed as much as he did. For one thing, he could actually change into a real wolf. One of no known or recognizable species, other than 'werewolf', but a full on quadraped, snout-faced, pointed ears, wagging tail, howling at the moon wolf. But he could also change into a humanoid wolf that was neither human nor wolf nor his 'caveman-like' werewolf form of before. That was the form he changed into now.

He stood about half a foot taller than he normally did, but that came from having rear-jointed knees now, with thigh muscles that could bench press at least one to two tons, not to mention the padded and clawed feet that more resembled talons than a wolf's paws or a man's feet. His shoulders had grown to almost twice their width, and his lungs and ribs had expanded to match, with muscles that would make a professional body builder green with envy as it all looked completely natural to boot. His hands were human, but with rough looking palms and curved claws that were actually longer and thicker than the fingers they came from. Dark, almost black fur covered every inch of him. His entire head was a wolf's head, except as big as a lion's head, with a lot more teeth, and eyes that didn't just reflect light, but shone with a glow of its own. When first transformed, they were a bright and friendly glowing green. And as he focused on the hoard, they shifted to yellow, and then to an angry dark red.

They all heard a voice in their minds.

_'DEATH HOWL!'_ Oz took a deep breath and a soundless sound echoed back at them, making everybody but their hands over their ears and cringe. The demon fishmen weren't so lucky as they got the full, unfiltered psychically enhanced sound right in their faces. Those closest, they actually exploded. Those behind them, their heads exploded first and everything else a half a second later. Behind them, whatever didn't explode was stripped to the bone as the force of energy being unleashed against their comparatively frail bodies.

When he was done with his first sweep, about a quarter of the demon fishmen were dead, decimated, or as good as. The rest were already running for the ocean.

Cordelia suddenly shot up as various images filtered into her mind suddenly.

"We can't let them reach the water! We'll never make it past them then!" she screamed the warning.

Xander, however, having almost become one of those things, knew exactly what they were capable of and what they would do if they got in the water. Closing his eyes, he reached out with Farscape and errected a psychokinetic wall between the ocean and the beach, and then he moved it inward, closer and closer to Oz. The fishmen noticed it immediately and started scratching and biting at it, but it did no good. Everyone else stared in confusion as the demonic hoard suddenly reversed itself, and maybe even got some back up as they appeared bunched up at the back there. Oz, however, immediately knew the truth. One of the other advantages he'd gained from being a psychic werewolf was that all of his enhanced senses applied to psychic phenomenon as much as physical matter. He could smell psi.

Oz let loose with two more 'Death Howls', taking the remaining demons down by half, but that still left plenty to cause plenty more damage. Which is when Oz decided to do some up close and personal 'fishing', flexing his claws as he stepped closer to the trapped demons. Moments later, it was all over, and all of the Drifters had proof that Oz was definitely one of the best Rise users in the world. Jonothan also had the answer to his earlier question as to what Rise was exactly.

"There are still more in the water," Xander, Buffy, and Cordelia all said at the same time, each having their own way of discovering this fact.

"Any clue as to how to get across?" asked Faith.

"I could cobble together a temporary bridge," offered Xander.

"Or we could just jump across," said Buffy.

"Fish guys get Scottie either way," said Cordelia. "He's the only one not making it so far. And... when I'm seeing us back home, I'm not seeing him at all."

Xander frowned in concern and looked back at the teenage boy.

"What? What does that even mean? That I'm gonna die or something?" he shouted, a bit panicked.

"What's our other option?" asked Xander, ignoring him.

"Um," Willow spoke up, "Couldn't we just drive across?"

The whole group blinked in surprise. Faith actually opened her mouth to rebuke the redheaded genius, but Cordelia's reaction interrupted her.

"Xander! NO! You can't! Remember what happened last time?"

"I was a lot weaker then, and I had been exhausted already by that point. I'm not now, and I'm a lot stronger, plus I won't be trying to pick up the whole thing, just carrying it across. I won't even make a whole bridge, just a platform that the van can just drive across on. No trouble at all, really!"

"Yeah," Buffy drawled, "let's come up with something that isn't going to put you right back in that bed working on your Regenerate skills. Giles, you got anything?"

"Oh, so glad of you to notice, I was afraid that I had suddenly ceased to be of any use in this endeavor as anything beyond an alternative source of information to Cordelia's remarkable abilities," the Englishman sarcastically retorted.

"Enough with the snark," said the older Slayer. "Oz is almost done. You want to make us a way across , or do you want to go outside and be fish bait while we try my idea?"

"Hey, that could actually work!" Cordelia said brightly.

"I'll be right back," Giles quickly got out of the van and walked to the edge of the beach. He then kept walking and beneath his feet the sand, in about a six foot radius from each footfall, changed into a hardened, flat, and smooth path. Oz had already finished with all the demons on land, and so when Giles reached the water, everyone was surprised to see him continuing on without pausing. There was also a dry, flat, smooth path behind him as he kept walking across the water, which receded more and more the further along he went. There was movement in the water, but all away from the Watcher and the effect of his power. By the time Giles had reached the telephone booth and even made some stairs leading up to it, Oz had changed back to normal and dressed and was back behind the wheel of the van and inching them across the stone path leading to the Gate.

Unfortunately, there was only just enough space for the van itself and maybe a single person alongside it at the end of the path, forcing them to get out one at a time and then gather around the phone booth, which held a battered, but functional electronic phone in it.

"Wasn't this phone booth supposed to be up on the boardwalk?" questioned Amy as Xander directed them in how to use the Gate, inserting their cards and then holding the receiver up to their ear.

"Actually it's about three miles away from where the beach used to be, and a mile and a half away from the boardwalk," Buffy answered in a no-nonsense tone.

"Be sure to stay out of the water in fact," Giles added. "Despite the obvious reasons, and not to quote any kind of old movie, but don't go in the water. It's not safe."

"Why, are there sharks? Got some kind of psychic Jaws haunting the beaches?" Faith laughed.

"If only," said Giles with a sigh.

"Yeah, uh, he's not kidding," Buffy confirmed.

"Whoa, seriously?" questioned Faith.

"Can we move this along please? Cordy, you and Faith go first. I go last, make sure everyone makes it through. Now please!" urged Xander.

One by one they all went ahead and vanished in a flash of light, leaving the receiver behind hanging from the phone. After Cordelia and Faith went, Willow, Jonathon, Amy and Scott followed, one by one, leaving just Xander behind with the future Buffy, Giles, and Oz. He paused before he picked up the phone and gave each of them a silent promise. Buffy was the only one who heard it and hugged him for it, nearly dislodging him from the Gate.

"Good luck," she whispered, kissing his cheek and stepping back. He just smiled that very Xander-like smile of his and nodded once. And then he was gone.

"So..." Buffy asked her companions as they turned around and started to walk away, "How mad do you think Sam is going to be?"

"Depends," replied Oz as his muscle mass suddenly tripled and he reached down and, with only minor difficulty, picked up the van, held it over his head and started walking back towards the street like he was just holding an extra wide empty cardboard box. "How serious were you on that 'threat' of taking out all the demons and talking all the people into following you instead?"

"Uh..." Buffy blanched and was suddenly very glad that she was not back at the camp right at that moment.

Earth

_Sunnydale, CA_

_Beachfront phone booth_

_Afternoon_

Xander appeared in the phone booth and immediately fell out of it into a crowd. They all quickly untangled themselves and when settled each took a moment to appreciate being back home, the blue skies, and no sign of decay or demons in sight.

Looking around, Xander quickly pushed out with Voyager and quickly found a spot that would give them some privacy. Ironically, it was an open parking lot, but it was empty and for some reason everyone was avoiding it like it... oh, wait. Vampire's nest in one of the buildings directly behind it. Xander was about to reach out with Farscape and open all the windows, maybe blast out a few walls, when something occurred to him. Buffy, Giles, Oz, everyone in Psyren were all a lot more powerful than him, but every time they trained, Greg told Xander that the youth had the greatest potential he had ever seen in any psychic before.

Then there was the fact that he had, somehow, overcome whatever psychic abilities that military colonel had when she'd used them against him, and even incapacitated her somehow.

He remembered when he'd first gotten his powers, they had been running entirely on instinct, to where he had barely any control over them at all. Now... now it was like he gave himself migraines if he used more than one power at a time for any length of time. Even in Psyren, where using his powers were so much easier, he near-killed himself by forcing his powers to do only what he consciously wanted them to do and nothing else. Except... it wasn't like that, he realized.

It wasn't that he was holding his powers back, it was that he was trying to force them to work in the first place, and that's why it was so draining and painful for him to use his powers. So, he asked himself, why can't he just go back to the way it was when he first got them, only instead of them reacting on instinct to his subconscious thoughts, to his deliberate conscious thoughts, but with the same instinctual reactions?

Wanting to try it out, he focused primarily on Voyager, while merely daydreaming about all the windows of the vampire nest opening up, right in time for the sun to be shining directly in their faces. If he could be said to be thinking anything, it would be '_Open the windows'_, but only at the same level that he would think '_Grab remote control_' when reaching for the clicker while lying on the couch.

Surprisingly, it took roughly the same amount of effort.

"Hey guys!" Xander called, less than a minute after they all arrived back to the present. "Let's go and talk some where. We need to discuss some things." He then lead the way to the private lot, now vampire-free.

"Like what?" asked Scott.

"Like the fact that if any of us talk about Psyren with anyone other than us, well, that person dies," Cordelia helpfully remarked.

"What?" those that didn't already know shouted.

Under a bench in the lot, Xander noticed an old news paper and grabbed it with his psi. Flipping through it to the correct page, he handed it to those that had shouted. "The guy there, that's gone missing, he was with me and Cordy on the last round. We three were the only ones to come back, out of over a dozen people. Moment I handed Cordelia the article, day after, she had a vision and straight up told me he was dead. Killed by Nemesis Q. Having personally felt the warnings from Nemesis Q about staying quiet, I can say that it is an extremely unpleasant way to die. Only reason I'm alive is because I've agreed, over and over again, _not_ to talk about Psyren with anyone."

"But... why?" asked Amy.

"We all already know about vampires, demons, magic and stuff, and we don't talk about that. Why the extra secrecy about this?" Jonathan pointed out.

"Um," Scott raised his hand, "I didn't."

"Surprising, since those two best friends of yours were one of the creepy crawlies we had to take care of a while back, stud," commented Faith.

"Faith!" Willow screamed, scandalized.

"What are you talking about?" Scott shouted, moving as if to attack the Slayer.

"Whoa there," Xander got in between them and held Scott back. "Nothing. She didn't mean anything. But if you want to know more about the vampires, demons and magic..."

"Oh my," Willow interjected with a brief smile. Xander shot her a look and she stayed quiet.

"... Then come by the Library tomorrow morning. We'll give you the full nickel-dime tour of all things Hellmouth. In the mean time, however, you need to realize what I mean about staying quiet. I don't just mean keeping it on the down low, I mean staying _quiet_. Do not talk about Psyren. In fact, outside of this group, don't even think about Psyren. And definitely don't leave clues or finding out other ways of letting people know. If you even try to do that, even so much as writing a note about anything that people don't already know or figure out on their own, you will be killed. By Nemesis Q. And considering how much the warnings hurt, I don't think you want to push the envelope and die that way, do you?"

Scott frowned, but held his tongue and nodded his head.

"Now," he clapped the other boy on the shoulders and turned back to the others, "Cordy and I obviously, as you've seen, have psychic powers, and while mine showed up in an obvious way the very next day, Cordy's not so much. It took me half a week in the desert with only one other psychic around to learn how to control my powers so I didn't unconsciously send people flying when I got annoyed at them. And in fact I'm still learning. I'll make a call to Greg, the psychic I mentioned and see about getting him to come out this weekend."

"So, when do I get to start tossing people left and right in fights anyway?" Faith asked. "B... Future B, didn't exactly show me how this psychic power stuff worked before she went to check on you, X."

Xander shrugged.

"Cordy has psychic visions and has a very limited telekinetic ability," he said. "It took me two days to figure out how to manifest and then control Voyager, the cloud thing. An entire day dedicated to just Sense to figure out how to make Vygr work. And every day we ran ten miles out and then twenty miles back to the house to get me to figure out Rise. So while you'll probably figure out what you can do on your own, Faith, it's gonna take some time to learn how to control it. Heck, I'm still learning!"

"So, what do we do?" asked Jonathan.

He shrugged again. "Keep an eye out, and don't let anybody else figure out you've got psychic powers. Don't talk about Psyren. Meet up tomorrow morning at the school library. Everything else, we'll figure out as we go along."

"So, not much has changed for you guys then, huh?" observed Amy.

"No, not much really," Willow answered with a casual smile. "Think you'll be OK with keeping one more thing from you dad?"

"No, I..." Amy's eyes suddenly went wide. "Oh my gosh! My dad! I've been gone for three days! What am I going to tell him?"

"Tell him your mom came back and kidnapped you and tried the body switch thing again," Xander suggested with a shrug. "Or just that your mom came back and kidnapped you and your friends from school came and rescued you... like last time."

The former blond blinked and remarked, "That may actually work. But I need to get home, like right _now_!"

"Wills, you OK taking her home? Need me or Faith to go with?" asked Xander.

"I can handle it. But, what about Scott and Jonathan?" answered Willow.

"I'll take the boys home. It's on my way to patrol anyway," Faith offered.

"Then I guess Cordy and I will head to the Library to let Buffy and Giles know that we're back. It's gonna be weird seeing them after meeting them in the future," he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"What time do we meet at the Library?" Jonathan asked suddenly.

The Scooby-Drifters glanced at each other and shrugged. "Before school," suggested Xander.

"Uh, guys..." Willow spoke up, after counting on her fingers. "Today is Friday. We... we missed a whole week of school!"

"What? Really?" Xander confirmed.

"You were unconscious for _three_ whole days, Xander!" the redhead exclaimed. "It was Monday when we left, and we spent the whole day running and fighting and stuff. You only woke up this morning, and then we immediately came here... and it looks like it's about two in the afternoon! Did we have any tests this week?"

"Huh," he counted it out on his fingers. "I guess you're right. Um... Maybe we should go to the Library and have that meeting now. That way, if need be, we can figure out a story or two about what to tell people on where we've all been."

Cordelia suddenly reached out and grabbed Amy, surprising everyone.

The brunette blinked suddenly, and then grabbed Willow, Jonathan, Scott, and finally Xander. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her wallet and held onto it.

"Uh, Cordy, something you want to share?" Xander prompted his girlfriend.

"I'm not sure," she mumbled, uncertainly. "Just a feeling mostly. But... I think we need to see Buffy and Giles sooner rather than later. Just... a feeling."

"How come you didn't get no feeling off me?" Faith asked, curious.

Cordelia shrugged and held out her hand. Faith stared at it, shrugged back and held out her own hand, palm up. Cordelia grabbed it, then gasped as her eyes slammed shut almost involuntarily.

_Faith was walking alone in outside her motel, heading towards her room, when suddenly she was ambushed. Not by vampires, but by punks with guns, and the manager of the motel wielding a baseball bat. He came up behind her and hit her on the head while the guys with the guns moved in and held their weapons close enough they could not miss. The guy with the bat hit her on he head again, she was bleeding and passed out on the ground. They dragged her inside her motel room and what followed was the worst imaginable. She stayed in the motel room long after they left, and when she did leave, she still came back and gave the manager what money she could scrounge together doing odd jobs and stealing what she could from those that deserved it._

"You're NOT going back to that motel!" Cordelia screamed when the vision finally let her go. "Xander! She is NOT going back to that motel!"

Xander blinked and shared a stunned look with Faith.

"OK then," he said carefully, pulling his girlfriend away from the annoyed Slayer, "Willow, take everyone to the Library please. Faith... you're moving in with either Buffy, Giles, Cordy or Willow."

"And who made that decision, huh?" she huffed, getting more annoyed by the second.

"Cordelia has visions. Whatever she saw, could probably be prevented, but to be quite honest, I'd rather you mooch off my friends than stay one more minute in that dive. And what better way to prevent whatever she saw from happening than by making it so you never have to go back again?" he shrugged.

"I gotta get my stuff," she said, crossing her arms.

He shrugged again, "I'll go with you. Keep Voyager active too, so no one sneaks up on us. Besides, Giles has a spare bedroom, and Buffy and Willow love slumber parties. Cordelia's got a guest house for crying out loud."

"Free rent!" Cordelia shouted again, getting in Faith's face. "As long as you want! Just DO NOT go back there!" She was actually begging, and Faith could see the real fear in the girl's eyes.

"OK, OK, I'll move out. Think Mrs. S would mind an extra Slayer in the house?"

"Are you kidding? This is Mrs. Summers we're talking about here," exclaimed Xander. "Besides, on the extremely unlikely chance she or Buffy say no, Giles is your Watcher. He's supposed to take care of you. Impending prophecy about him taking away Buffy's powers for some kind of test aside for the moment."

"Gee, thanks for the reminder. I think I'll stick with B," Faith assured him.

_Sunnydale High_

_Library_

"Hey Giles! Buffy! You here?" Xander called the moment he stepped through the swing doors of the Library.

"XANDER!" a voice screeched. There was a blond blur and suddenly Xander found himself back out in the hall, flat on his back.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Buffy screamed into his face, holding fistfuls of his shirt to hold his head up. She was currently sitting on his stomach though, so he had some trouble actually answering her.

"Buffy!"

Buffy looked up from interrogating Xander and saw Willow, Faith, and all the rest standing there, staring. The Slayer's eyes began to tear up, and half a heartbeat later, Willow found herself enveloped in a Slayer hug of epic magnitude.

"Uh, B? You OK there?" Faith asked, concerned that she might be next.

"We were gone for an entire week," Cordelia sighed, walking into the Library, "For all she knew, we were dead or killed or turned into vampires or something. So... she wasn't OK, but now she is."

"What she said," Buffy wailed through Willow's hair.

"Um, just so we're clear... you two can't ask us where we've been, you get that, right?" Xander checked, just to make sure. He picked himself up off the floor, with no help from anyone, and herded everyone, including a clingy Buffy who was not letting go of Willow for a second, back into the Library.

"Uh, hello again, Giles," Xander finally shook Giles' hand.

"Oh sod it," Giles took Xander's grip and pulled him into a hug and only let go when he moved on to Cordelia and Faith in turn, shocking both young brunettes.

"Did... we miss something?" Xander asked, starting to get a bit freaked out all of a sudden.

"You've been gone for a whole week!" Buffy exclaimed, still at Willow's side. "Even Oz was worried sick, he was actually brooding and stuff!"

"Yeah," agreed Oz, who was on the other side of Willow, already holding her hand.

"Oh, hey Oz, didn't see you there," Xander waved.

"So where do I get one of these cards?" was the next thing out of Oz's mouth.

"Yeah, because I cannot stand not knowing what is happening to you all with this whole Psyren society, or whatever it is that's going on!" Buffy exclaimed.

Xander frowned and shot a look at Cordelia, who had a panicked look on her face. He reached out telepathically and sent over a silent feeling of curiosity and concern. She, in turn replied with the vision she'd just received, showing it as she would a memory, telepathically. Buffy not here meant... whoa, that's not a pretty picture, Xander thought, paling somewhat. A similar scenario occurred if either Giles or Oz disappeared. He was curious as to why the rest of them going to Psyren didn't have the same effect, but one look at a smiling and crying Buffy told him all he needed.

It was agreed that Buffy was the most successful Slayer in Watchers-only-know how many generations of Slayers, and it was Xander's belief that him and Willow and the others were the primary cause behind that success. If even one more of Buffy's friends disappeared without a trace for years on end... Yeah, not a pretty picture.

"That's not happening," Xander told them flat out, his voice wielding an air of command that even he didn't recognize. Which reminded him, "Oh yeah. Giles, here you go. Don't really know what it is, and I just found it some place, like the side of the road or whatever. Looked Watchery, thought you could make heads or tails of it. Enjoy, mi amigo!"

"Xander? What?" Giles mumbled as he handled the diary. Hesitantly, he opened it and began to read.

"My WORD! Xander do you realize...?"

He interrupted the Watcher, holding up his hand and said, "Like I told you, G-Man, don't know what it is, and I just found it. On the side of the road. Interpret that however you want, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it."

"Yeah Giles," Willow perked up, her smile a bit too wide, her eyes a bit too bright, "Xander just found that. On the side of the road. Thought you would know what to do with it. You do... know what to do with it, right?"

"Uh, Giles, what is that?" Buffy asked.

"Hm?" Giles jumped where he stood, and then tried to act nonchalantly and walked back to his office, "Oh, it's my diary, that's all. Don't understand what it was doing by the side of the road, must have lost track of it somehow. If you'll excuse me."

"Smart man," Faith commented after the door had slammed shut.

"OK, seriously, spill, what happened? Where have you been?" Buffy started grilling Willow.

"Buffy, I..." Willow looked panicked back and forth between Buffy and Xander.

Xander frowned and physically pulled Buffy away from his bestest friend. "Buff. The same rules apply to all of us now."

"What? But... oh," she drew pale and her expression froze in a look of horror and worry.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Xander drew her into a hug. "It's not forever. You and Giles, you... you actually already have figured out more than I can tell you about anything. And I'm very sure that you'll figure out the rest. Eventually."

"Look, not that I can't appreciate what is going on here," Scott interrupted them, "but what is going on here?"

"Oh my gawd! Scott!" Buffy exclaimed, wiping her tears away and seemingly only just noticed Amy and Jonathan as well. "Uh..."

"Same rules, Buffster. All of us," Xander answered the unasked question.

"Oh. Wow. Uh, rough, huh?" she winced.

"So when do we get our private lessons with Mr. Psychic, huh?" Faith asked, licking her lips a bit.

"Huh? Who? Wait... all of you now?" Buffy pouted, arms crossed.

"Uh... let me make a phone call. In the mean time though, we need to be getting Amy, Jonathan and Scott back home. And... with a reasonable excuse so they aren't grounded for the rest of eternity," said Xander.

"Why don't we just tell them—!" Jonathan's voice suddenly cut off and Oz and Buffy both had their fingers in their ears and Buffy was singing "LA LA LA" as loud as she could. Jonathan, on the other hand, had started to go a bit pale, but when his color suddenly returned before anybody could grab him, they realized it was from fright when Buffy started scream singing than Nemesis Q.

Xander gave Buffy a thumbs up and a grateful smile.

"Jonathan, man," Xander grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered in the ear, "Are you trying to get yourself killed? No talking about you-know-what. At all. You try and talk about it, Nemesis Q will kill you. Slowly and painfully. Ergo, we need to come up with something else to tell everyone's parents. Except for mine and Willow's of course, because they just plain don't care."

"Oh, sorry," Jonathan was actually shaking a bit now. "But what I was going to say was that why don't we just tell them we all joined a club and that we went on a field trip, and the school sponsor forgot to inform them after the fact."

Hm, it was a good idea, Xander mused, but... "That would get Giles in trouble."

"What if we told our parents, all of us, that the school sponsor of our club is Principal Snyder?"

Xander wondered if his grin was as evil as it felt.

_Night_

_Home of Scott Hope_

Scott Hope sat home alone, in front of his computer, reading from the numerous conspiracy websites about Psyren. It scared him. Almost as much as actually living through it, and knowing that if he shared what he knew with the world, he would die, and die horribly according to all the others. He didn't want to die.

But he didn't want to be a part of this world. He didn't ever, not really. He'd found the card amongst some of the things Pete had left behind at his house after... after he and Debbie died. He definitely didn't know what the card was before he used it. The final question though, he'd made sure to hit No, he did not want to go to Psyren!

He clicked on a link that said something about 'How To Avoid Psyren' and what he saw intrigued him. It opened a pop-up window that had a single graphic question with a single link on it. Clicking on the link opened up fields for him to input his address. The questions was; "Do You Never Want To Go To PSYREN Again?"

Scott typed in his address and hit submit.

_Willow's House_

It had been three hours since they had returned from Psyren. Three hours since Willow had returned from her first round in Nemesis Q's twisted game. They had actually been stuck in Psyren for several days, but were held in isolated RVs or tents while they waited on Xander and Faith to be healed, and then it was a straight-shoot to the Gate from there. Before that, Willow had a nosebleed, fever, and migraine level headache for exactly 60 minutes, rather than 6 hours. But afterward, in the week since the nosebleed had stopped, she hadn't shown a glimmer of any psychic powers at all.

And better believe it, she had been trying.

Nothing major, but she wanted to catch up to Xander, now that she had psychic powers too. It really irked her that he had it so easy when his powers first manifested. He hadn't even been consciously doing anything and didn't have to concentrate to make his powers work. Whereas Willow had nearly given herself an apoplexy trying to move one single pencil! She could cast a levitation spell and keep it going for hours, but she couldn't use the power of her mind to do the same thing for even just a few seconds?

It was frustrating the hell out of her, and she didn't know what to do next. She didn't want to wait for Greg to come back to town on the weekend to show them all how to use Burst and Rise and Sense! She wanted to figure it out for herself and do it now!

Willow's blood was practically boiling by the point she gave up on trying to move the pencil in front of her. Realizing she couldn't do much of anything like this, she gave up shortly after and decided to work on furthering the powers she knew she did have. Pulling out a few candles, the young self-taught-witch laid out a circle and then retrieved a special book that she'd "borrowed" from the Library during the summer. Thankfully, Giles hadn't needed it during their research sessions in recent months, otherwise she'd have to return it and definitely wouldn't have it now when she needed it.

"Now," she mused to herself, mind wandering, "what was that candle lighting spell?"

It was on the tip of her tongue, Ignis or Incendio or something like that, but she knew better than to mutter Latin while reading magic books, or to tap into her magic while thinking the words. She felt something.

Looking up, Willow immediately glanced at the door to her room, and then the door to her balcony. Both were closed and showed no signs that anyone was going to enter from either point. Glancing back to her magic circle, she froze and quietly put the book down.

All the candles were lit.

She had not lit them. In fact, double-checking her memory and going over everything she'd done, said, or thought for the past few minutes, she was quite sure, she had not done anything. She had not tapped her magic, had not called on any spirits, had not done anything other than... think... about... lighting the candles...

Willow blinked.

It couldn't be that easy, could it?

She blew out each of the candles and then reviewed what she'd been thinking leading up to whatever it was she'd felt... a feeling she soon felt once more, and this time she watched as a red spark lit each of the candles in turn.

"Huh," the redhead mused. "Pyrokinesis."

She suddenly grinned and opened her hand, focusing on the feeling and thinking about holding a fireball in her open hand. The same red spark reappeared, but there was no wick to ignite, and apparently the spark wasn't quite hot enough to burn the air. Thinking it through, she waded up a piece of notebook paper and held that in her hand before calling back the red spark. The paper ignited and was burned away to ash and smoke before she'd even had time to feel the heat. She frowned. That wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind.

She called up the red spark once more. It was small, no more than a millimeter in circumference, if such things can be accurately measured that is. It was not, however, your typical spark. A spark was a single point of ignited material, hot enough that it generates light as well as heat until it cools and all that's left is ash or so many free-floating particles in the air and on the ground. One spark usually gave way to many others, either by casting off more material off it's core, or igniting the material it touches to do the same, in the end generating more 'sparks' from the initial spark.

What she held now, however, was not normal. It was also not technically speaking a real "spark" as there was no ignited material, and Willow could tell, by holding her hand closed over it, that the 'red spark' was not generating heat, or made of any material at all. Feeling no heat from it made her curious and she walked over to the mirror on her desk and held the spark up to it. In the mirror, she saw only her hand. No spark, no red light, nothing at all.

Which meant that whatever this thing was, it wasn't generating heat, light, and was not made out of any physical material. But she could see it, and she could feel it, in her mind at least. She briefly wondered if the spark could do anything to affect the mirror, seeing as glass didn't really burn with flames. Not at temperatures that could be realistically generated outside of very unique circumstances that is.

Thinking about moving the spark close to her mirror to see if it would melt, reflect, or just break the glass, she tried to make a decision. After all, it was her mirror, but she didn't exactly care about it that much and it was a cheap mirror any... what the!

The spark, without her moving her hand at all, was flying through the air straight at the mirror!

She felt a pressure building behind her eyes with every inch of space the spark crossed, and then when it hit the mirror on her desk, she could only stare as the spark began to melt and bubble the aluminum-mixed glass, before burning it's way through it and out the plastic back, also melted and burned away. She mentally stopped the spark from going any further, and cried out as her head gave a particular harsh throb, and she lost concentration and the spark disappeared entirely. Once it was gone, the pressure behind her eyes also vanished.

Taking a moment, she just sat there before reaching out and taking the mirror in her hand to closely examine it.

There was no drip. No excess, burned material, showing that the glass and plastic had melted before being burned through. Only a very, very, small amount of scoring on the inside edges of the millimeter circular hole, as clean cut as if she had used a laser to do it. Except a laser would still show the melted material around the hole. And for that matter, where was the excess heat? Glass and plastic were just melted, the whole mirror should have been scalding hot, if not warm to the touch for at least a few seconds after it happened, and Willow hadn't left it alone long enough for it to be as cool to the touch as it always was.

Willow looked back to the circle she had been making. The candles were completely melted, and the flames, despite the 17-inch wicks now been only a few centimeters in length and covered in melted candle wax, were burning as brightly as ever. They were also touching her carpet, but the carpet was not catching fire. Nor were the sheets of her bed. She reached out and could feel... something in the fires. It was like being aware of you middle toes. You knew they were there, but unless there was something wrong, or you were moving them specifically, you never noticed them before. Well, she definitely didn't want her room to catch fire, so she reached out and 'flexed' these little piggies.

The fire vanished and in it's place was a bright, marble-sized sphere of light that floated up to her hands. Looking back in the mirror, she saw what she half-hoped to see; her holding a glowing ball of light. Except the light wouldn't hold still. She could feel it fighting her, wanting to get out, to grow, to consume, to burn!

Willow held up both hands and put the full force of her considerable concentration of the task of keeping the ball of light stationary between them. It actually got more difficult, and she couldn't understand why, until something unexpected happened. The marble-sized ball of light shot fire at her! And a moment later it was shooting all over the room, like some kind of demented firefly from hell! With every direction change, there was another burst of fire and Willow realized that very soon her room really would be in danger of catching fire. Thankfully the flames had dissipated only a few inches from the ball of light, which was growing dimmer with each explosion, though not soon enough in Willow's opinion. She kept trying to get control of it, but it felt to her mind like she was trying to hold onto living sand!

... Or living fire!

She immediately stopped trying to hold on to the ball of light and merely imagined it staying still right in front of her so she could examine it. The bursts of fire immediately stopped and it flew over to right in front of her in a streak of light that left an afterimage burned into her retina. The pressure, which had been building for a while now, eased. It didn't disappear as before, but it eased. The 'marble' was more of a 'jawbreaker' now, but also a lot dimmer, and wasn't just a ball of light, but more a small light bulb. The comparison works if you consider that the light of the original marble-sized light being that of a sun, and what it was at now was around a 100 watt bulb. Now that she had the opportunity to examine it more closely, she imagined it staying exactly where it was, while she went and got some sunglasses so she could actually stand looking at it. Once she had at least that much protection, she took a closer look at what she had created.

It took her a few minutes, but she soon figured out exactly what had happened. She was still dealing with the how, but the what she could answer with assured confidence.

Whatever the red energy was, and she could only assume it was her psi, it wasn't what was typically thought of when people theorized about how pyrokinesis worked. If anything, it more resembled a force field, only one attuned to fire rather than just raw force or electricity. Somehow, when her psi interacted with surrounding matter the reaction was to accelerate the particles to the point at which they either ignited, melted, or destabilized and sublimated the particles of the matter. Vaporized in other words.

And it wasn't her psi working directly on the matter, but more her psi creating an energy force that caused the reaction. She hypothesized she could even figure out the equation of what exactly was happening... given the next five years of her life dedicated to understanding particle physics, advanced mathematics and doing nothing but studying exactly what her psi had just done moments after she discovered she had it. And that was just the red energy that only she (and she suspected other psychics) could see. There was also the force field part of that gave her so much trouble already.

Somehow, whenever she started a fire with her psi energy, that energy remained interspersed with the fire itself, and if she directed it to, the energy could draw in all of the 'fire' and contain it inside a single space, hence the marble/jawbreaker sized fireball hovering in front of her. What had been going on with the erratic behavior and burst of fire was her trying to, consciously, contract the force field even tighter. If it had just been the energy, it wouldn't have been any trouble, she figured. But with all of that fire energy, enough to cover half her room in flames compacted down to the size of a marble, that was a lot of energy and plasma-state energy at that. Trying to compact it any more than it already was would've changed it into a solid, and there was no such thing as "solid fire" in spite of how you define it. Thus, the energy actually became powerful enough that it escaped the force field energy containing it, and the result was the flying around erratically with bursts of flame coming from it as some of the fire managed to escape here and there as she tried to keep compacting/control it.

In addition to examining the physical effects of her new psychic powers, Willow also took time to analyze things from what she was experiencing and feeling from her using them. It really wasn't that hard, but it required a different kind of thinking than she was used to. Even magic, which was as much concentration and focus as it was rituals and special ingredients, required a very different method of thinking than using her psychic powers did. It was more natural than using magic, but more ethereal than moving her own body or using her imagination. It also had limits that were not easy to define.

Trying to experiment a bit, she had tried to maybe split her current "firefly" into two or more, splitting the fire energy, hopefully dissipating it until she could safely extinguish the fire without too much trouble. It felt like she was trying to turn left and right at the same time by splitting her body in two!

Seeing that didn't work, she then tried to just create a second spark in her second hand, but this time the pressure behind her eyes quickly approached migraine levels again, but this time didn't dissipate after she stopped trying. She realized it was because she was still holding the first firefly, she was still using her psi. That pressure, she slowly realized, was the physical result of her using her psi, it let her know how much she could handle, like muscle pains after doing too much exercise or when you were close to spraining something. Or had already sprained something, she remembered how Xander had been in a coma for 3 days because he'd over used his psi.

Knowing that she couldn't just hold this all night, the migraine was getting progressively worse the longer she maintained it, but also that she couldn't just will the fire away, Willow cast about for some way to get rid of the fire that wouldn't kill her or damage her room or hurt somebody else in some way. Maybe she could, well, absorb the heat into her body, a little bit at a time? Except it wasn't just heat, it was actual fire contained in the tiny little firefly. She was essentially holding a live grenade in her hands, one that was more like a firebomb than a shrapnel weapon, and time was running out on the fuse.

Maybe... maybe a spell?

She quickly opened up the spellbook and skimmed through it as quickly as she could. Quite a few fire spells, but not much on extinguishing. How had she not noticed that before, she huffed with frustration. Looking about her room for any alternatives, her eyes fell across her empty aquarium. Well, not quite empty. She kept it filled with water and all of the other castles and mermaids and stuff in honor of her deceased fish, but ever since Angelus... well, let's just say she thought pets were overrated these days and no longer required their companionship. Looking back and forth between the firefly and her aquarium, she made a decision. She couldn't just shoot the floating fireball at the water, it would flash-boil the water and the glass would explode and there was even a chance the fire wouldn't be fully extinguished and could still burn down her house. But, she decided, if she released the psi slowly, releasing the energy a little bit at a time until it was all released, well yes the water would still be boiled away, and her room would be like a sauna for the next little while, but the glass wouldn't shatter and explode and hopefully the flames would be all used up and extinguished by that point anyway.

Moving the firefly carefully, and in through the top rather than straight into it from the front or sides, she put it in the middle of the water-filled aquarium and began to slowly release the power of her psi, slowly lowering the force field. The fiery point expanded to the size of a grapefruit and the water instantly began to boil. Willow gulped, and quickly, while maintaining constant mental control over how much energy was being released, went and got a bucket and quickly filled it with freezing water from the bathroom. When it boiled away even as she poured it into the steaming aquarium, she went and got all the ice from the freezer as well as every ice-pack she could find in there and raced back to her room, which was filled with steam so thick she couldn't even see a foot in front of her own face anymore. The ice bought her a little bit more time, time enough to get more and more water, but it was still boiling away pretty fast, and somehow she could tell that it was only halfway done.

She was sweating enough by then that if she wiped her brow and squeezed it out she could probably buy herself an extra second. Still, it's never pleasant working in sweaty clothes, especially stockings, a knee-length skirt, two t-shirts (one long sleeved, one short sleeved), and a wool sweater. In between trips to the bathroom and kitchen for more water and ice, she stripped off an article of clothing at a time, giving her little relief, until she was running through the steam-filled house in her underwear, her body glistening with sweat. She didn't really want to go any further than that, but she could feel that there was still too much energy contained by her psi to be safely released. So she kept making water runs, sweating until it looked like she'd just stepped out of the shower and hadn't bothered to towel off, at all. She started having trouble breathing, the heavy steam-fog making it harder for her to catch her breath with each gasp. The pressure behind her eyes certainly didn't help.

Finally, after she didn't know how long, and almost a hundred buckets of water and ice, the pressure eased enough that she recognized she could release the remaining fire energy without absolutely destroying everything in her house. She opened all the windows and the doors to her balcony and tossed in one last bucket of water to be sure, and then went down to the cool basement, still maintaining control over the firefly, and then finally released the last holds on her psi. The pressure in her head released immediately, and she nearly collapsed in relief. Except she hear a muffled boom above her, and the open basement door was rolling down about three times as much steam as there just had been. Whimpering to herself, Willow decided to enjoy the cool, yet rapidly heating air of the basement for a few minutes longer before trudging back upstairs to see the damage her little experiment had caused.

She turned on every fan in the house and turned the AC up to the coldest it would go and still left the windows and doors open. It took over an hour for the steam to finally subside, during which time she remained in her underwear, still aglow.

The damage, as it turned out, wasn't as bad as she had feared, but was still pretty bad. For one thing, she could never use that aquarium ever again. For another, there was steam damage to her ceiling and walls of her room and signs of it throughout the rest of the house. But as bad as all that was, the worst of it was her computer, which she really should have covered with the protective plastic sheaths, but had been too preoccupied to even think of doing. Provided she could even dry out all the components, the monitor would never work right again, and if any of the moisture had gotten into the UPS or hard drive, it was never going to work again and it would actually be cheaper to replace the whole thing and save what data she could than what the repairs to it would cost.

She whimpered again as she examined the damage to her personal property and would have just lay down on the bed and had herself a good cry, but it was still way too hot in the room, and she was at her limit. So, carrying the main casing with her, she left her room and hesitantly ventured outside her back door. She made sure the computer was out of the way and wouldn't suffer any more than it already had, but as great as her shyness and the potential for embarrassment was, the heat inside the house was just too great for her to stand for much longer. Too bad her parents didn't have a pool, that would hit just the spot right then.

After the steam-fog finally cleared enough, and the AC was doing it's job better than the windows and open doors, Willow finally re-entered the house and was chilled within minutes, which she luxuriated in until the chill had crinkled her nipples, given her goosebumps all over, and had her shivering everywhere she walked. At that point she turned the AC off and returned to her room, fully intending to get dressed once more and then maybe go straight to bed and fall asleep. Except, she realized as she walked through the house, that she still had a lot of cleaning to do. Even though her parents wouldn't be back until next week some time, if she left it like this, it would just be that much harder to clean up later.

With another whimper and a tired sigh, Willow started cleaning up. At first she would've still gotten dressed, but the memory of the overbearing heat, and the knowledge that she'd soon be sweating away all over again and with the AC turned off, it was too much trouble. So she set about cleaning up her house and repairing as much of the steam damage as she could, in her underwear, still aglow.

_Sunnydale High Library_

_Weekend_

Giles had been studying... _his_ journal for over a day, nearly two days now. It was both a dream come true and a nightmare to behold for any Watcher. To know that your diary, your Watcher's Journal will make it into the hands of a Watcher with an Active Slayer and will contain needed information that will help save lives. But what he was reading...

There was no mention of the word Psyren, or anything to indicate that his future self was a part of that world at all. Not until the end that is. Where he left a note to himself, telling him to continue marking down the events as they transpire in the original journal, which Giles had only gotten a day before Xander left a scribbled note in his office over a week ago. He was warned not to try and copy exactly, but merely write in it has he normally would and only use the future journal as reference occasionally. Even if things go differently, which hopefully they will, mark it down as normal.

Giles resolved to do just that and quickly hid the piece of the future away so no one but him could find it. No one could know of it. And he prayed that no one ever would.

Glancing at his watch, he saw that Greg and the children were due to arrive any minute now.

"Hey G-man!" Ah, speak of the devil.

Walking out of his office, after ensuring that the Diary was safely stowed away, he greeted the new arrivals. "Hello Xander, Greg, everyone. I suppose it's time for me to start Buffy's afternoon training regimen then. Enjoy the office, Greg."

"Don't worry, Rupert," Greg said as the Watcher left the room, "Promise not to go through your stuff!"

Greg chuckled as they all could hear the stuffy Englishman grumble as he walked out the room, presumably to meet Buffy for their afternoon training.

"Man it's fun getting that man's goat," he laughed one last time and then turned to regard his 'students', which had grown by a considerable amount from just Xander. If this continued at the rate it was going, he was going to need some help. Hell, to bring them all up to Xander's level, he already needed help. Speaking of students, the last of them, supposedly, had just walked in.

Aside from Xander and Cordelia and two of the other girls that he'd teased at being the boy's girlfriends, Willow and Faith he recalled were their names, there was another girl and two more boys, one the shortest human he'd ever seen that wasn't a dwarf and the other looking extremely nervous, among plenty of other emotions. Interesting. And troublesome.

Seven students. If he was superstitious at all, he might almost feel like this was some kind of portent in some kind of prophecy that he didn't know about. He knew about the Hellmouth and the things that Rupert, and apparently the girl Buffy, did. He'd known about vampires for as long as he'd had his powers, and he'd been on patrol with Faith and Buffy and Xander a few times now. But what he'd only recently discovered, was that they dealt with more than taking out a few vampires every night. They literally saved the world on a monthly, near-weekly basis!

And most of that knowledge that enabled them to do so came from prophecies and first-hand knowledge passed down through the ages in Giles' books.

That, however, did not change his current predicament, of being some kind of "Professor X" to a bunch of newly awakened psychics. And seven of them. All within the space of a few months? Something was definitely going on, but whoever had put that program into their heads prevented Greg from finding out, not unless he wanted to kill them. There was no way that he could be sure, for that matter, if he could actually get the information he would be searching for even if he did try and violate the secret they were all now protecting. If this continued, he was calling in for back up. As it was, he was planning on calling those he had in mind in anyway, to help him training the lot of them in Rise.

Everyone had been sitting, or standing around now for about three minutes, Greg sort of staring, more glaring at all of them, his arms crossed as he leaned against the counter in front of Giles office. Xander was familiar with this, as he'd been subjected to it from the get-go on their drive out to Greg's place in the middle of the desert. Cordelia was busy doing her nails and knew that she didn't have anything to worry about. The rest of them though, were beginning to feel more than a bit uncomfortable with Greg's glaring.

"So, what's up, Psycho-man?" Faith finally broke the tension with her usual brash attitude.

"You tell me, Faith," Greg cooly replied. "I'm starting to think there's something in the water around here. Or maybe there's more to this Hellmouth than most would admit. You all now have psychic abilities. Show of hands, not you Xander or Cordelia, how many know what their powers are already?"

Willow, not surprisingly, immediately raised her hand, but then blushed as she realized she was the only one to do so.

"Well, there's a reason for so many warnings against playing with fire, Miss Rosenberg. I do hope you've learned your lesson," Greg admonished the teenage girl.

Willow's entire face was a burning red and she seemed to shrink in on herself. Greg noticed how the other boy's, Scott, eyes were on her, and his expression seemed to indicate he knew how she felt. Literally. That left the other two. And Faith. Then again, Faith was easy compared to those two enigmas. She seemed to be a blank slate, and had no natural inclination. He felt it was safe to say, however, that she would soon be a very powerful Rise user.

"Xander, Cordelia, I need to talk to you, privately," he said before turning and walking into the office behind him.

Cordelia looked up, an annoyed look on her face. She then paused as Xander walked past her into the office, before turning and briefly touching the shoulder of all the other people in the room. She nodded and then turned and walked into the room. The moment she was inside, the door slammed shut behind her and all the blinds were drawn.

"Willow has pyrokinesis. Faith has had all of her Slayer powers boosted, and thanks to being exposed to it already, can use Cure. Amy can do stuff to non-living materials, make them stronger and weaker and change them and stuff. Scott has empathy and it feels like he can make others feel what he wants them to feel, sort of. The shorty, Jonathan, has something called Burst Territory. Or maybe it's just a burst ability called Territory? It wasn't too clear," she told them as she sat down on the couch and resumed working on her nails.

The men both blinked and just stared at her.

Without looking up, she told them, "Soon as I got up, I knew what you wanted to know and how to get it. I just knew it, don't ask me how or what. Touched each of them out there, saw Willow surrounded by fire, without getting burned, saw Faith kicking some major but and healing somebody else just by holding her hands on them, saw Amy doing stuff to like metal and rock weapons, changing their colors and everything and sometimes even their shape, and saw how Scott sees things from his point of view for like one second, and saw him doing something to people that made them feel whatever he wanted them to feel. Only thing I saw about that shortie Jonathan is that he was surrounded by some kind of aura and that he could make that aura grow or something, and a name for it popped in my head."

"And what if I've decided that I've done what I promised you I'd do here and that I'm leaving tomorrow and you two can take care of these new psychic friends of yours?" asked Greg. She ignored him, picking up a book from beside her on the couch and began flipping through it.

"Then I would say, Greg," said Xander, "Thanks for everything you've done for us. We really appreciate it, and to call if you ever need our help. I'm not about to make anyone here do anything they don't want, or have to do. And you don't have to help us if you don't want to, Greg. I can only hope to do you justice, but then again, Yoda was a much better Jedi Master than Obi-Wan was for Luke, so I probably won't succeed that well."

Greg managed to keep a straight face for about two seconds before he broke down laughing. "You're comparing me to the little green elf? Hahaha! That's rich!"

"Yeah, well, we may not be Jedi, but it feels like that sometimes," Xander admitted. "Besides, with all that running and jumping you made me do to develop my Rise, would I compare you to anyone else?"

"You know in the books, Luke has started his own Jedi Academy," Greg said, still chuckling.

"Geeks," Cordelia rolled her eyes, still flipping through the book she'd picked up.

"I'm still learning and picking things up for myself, Greg," he said, "But if you feel that I'm good enough that I won't permanently screw up everyone out there, and you really don't want to be here anymore, which no one can really blame you for, then by all means, say the word and have a safe trip out of town. Otherwise, I have to know what you want to talk to us about?"

"What is really going on here?" Greg demanded to know.

Cordelia closed her book and kept her head bowed. Xander frowned, but didn't say a word.

"I've been here for almost a month, and supposedly you were the first and I got here less than a week after you first got your powers, Xander. Seven psychics in a Month! Would either of you care to guess at the odds of that happening? Anywhere? Even on the Hellmouth?"

"One hundred eighty-two trillion to one," Cordelia blurted out.

Greg pointed at the clairvoyant psychic as though she'd just made his entire argument for him. "That's actually better odds than of something happening to an ordinary, or even not-so-ordinary person and giving them psychic powers! And maybe, _maybe_ you can move the decimal place around a bit on the Hellmouth, but only by one point, in either direction. And it just happened seven times in a little less than two months. To people in the same school even. I could shrug it off if it were just you and your girlfriend, Xander. Whether true or not, I could just safely assume that you either showed her whatever it was that made you psychic, or she followed you one time out of jealousy or something mundane and easy to explain like that. But five more people? Three of them not connected to your group in the least way. Something is going on here, Xander, and I'm not going anywhere, or doing anything else, until I know what it is."

Xander's frown deepened, but still he didn't say anything. Greg grabbed the chair at the desk and turned it around before straddling it, his arms crossed over the back, glaring at them expectantly.

Xander sighed and rubbed his head, recalling phantom pains of the last times he'd pushed the envelope.

"If you tell anyone about this... we're all dead, you understand that, right?" he asked his teacher.

"Then give me enough that I can work it out on my own, like you did with the others before," Greg was practically begging. He didn't want any of them to die, and he would keep their secrets, he swore, but he couldn't work blind like this, not anymore.

Xander reached around and pulled out his wallet. His vivid red Psyren Card dropped out, seemingly accidental.

Cordelia gasped, but kept her head down, not wanting to risk anything herself.

Greg stared hard at the card and memorized every detail he could of it before Xander, slowly, reached down and picked it back up, saying, "Whoops, sorry, didn't mean to show you that. Clumsy me." Nobody commented on the sarcasm or pure insincerity in his voice, instead just waiting for the shoe to drop. Thankfully, it never did.

Xander and Cordelia both breathed a sigh of relief, and Greg was looking very intently at the spot where that card had been moments before. Finally, he whispered, "I-I've heard the rumors, but.. Giving people psychic powers? Why? For what purpose? How?"

The two Drifters remained silent in the face of these questions.

"So. Nemesis Q is a psychic. Or rather, 'Nemesis Q' is a program, one that can imbue other programs and have powers of its own. Holy shit," Greg ran his fingers through his hair, pulling his scalp back, his eyes wide, not seeing anything real. "That has got to be one powerful psychic, whoever, or whatever they are. Shit."

"Program?" Xander asked.

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit! Hell, do you even know what you've gotten involved in?"

Both Drifters just gave him steady looks.

"Heh, probably better than I do," Greg laughed again, but this time it sounded rather hollow.

"All right, I'm in," he said, sitting straight suddenly. "If Rupert can trust you this far, I can at least match him. How much has he figured out on his own?"

"You'd have to ask him," Xander shrugged. "We don't exactly talk about it. It's kind of a taboo topic around here."

"Yeah, I guess it would be," Greg sighed and ran his fingers through his hair one more time. "OK, while I'm talking to all of them, and try and figure out what the hell I'm going to do now, I don't want you two just sitting on your asses waiting for who knows what. Cordelia, we made some progress, but you still need a lot of work on your telekinesis. Xander, you need to work on your multitasking. Uh, please send them in one at a time, and in the order Cordelia said. Only way I'm going to keep it straight in the first place. And, uh, give me a couple minutes?"

"Sure thing Greg, and... thanks again," Xander clapped the man on the back and then escorted Cordelia out of the room.

_Later That Afternoon_

Scott left the meeting, feeling more than a bit overwhelmed. Now he didn't just have to worry about getting spirited away to Psyren without warning, he had to worry about vampires and demons and saving the world from _multiple_ apocalypses! On top of that, he also needed training for his 'new psychic powers' that were already driving him crazy!

What idiot thought being able to sense other people's emotions on top of feeling his own would be a useful power to have?

"All power is worth something to someone," an accented voice whispered just as he passed.

"What?" Scott turned around and was surprised by what he saw there.

"For instance, I know something about you, boy. Something no one else in the world could know," the stranger whispered. He was about Scott's height and Japanese. He seemed about middle-aged, maybe in his late thirties with slicked back hair. He seemed rather frail looking, but had an angular face and a distinctive eyepatch over his right eye. He was wearing a three-piece suit and had a very big muscular companion, also in a suit and wearing small sunglasses that fit the shape of his eyes, standing just behind him.

Scott stood back, but he didn't run. Their was an air of authority around these two, and his empathy was telling him that they weren't here to hurt him. On the contrary, they wanted something from him, and wanted to help him. At least the big guy did. He... he couldn't tell much of anything about the one speaking though.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Scott asked, nervous.

"You may call me Usui," the man ginned. "And you are Scott Hope." He then recited Scott's address and Scott escalated from nervous to outright scared.

"Not to worry young man," Usui grinned wickedly, "You were the one who contacted me after all. I have a question for you young man; Do you never want to go to Psyren ever again?"

Scott stopped backing away and looked at these two men in a new light.

"How?" was all he said.

"Give me your card, please," Usui held out his left hand. Scott immediately handed it over and watched as the number Xander had showed him how to make appear suddenly started flickering in the corner of the card before it faded away, like the digital screen had been damaged or scratched out. "There. Now Nemesis Q can never again summon you to Psyren. Thank you, young man, thank you for this." He held out his hand and Scott didn't hesitate in grasping it to shake the man's hand, his gratitude filling him up. And then Usui grabbed Scott's hand with both his hands clasped together, and he heard the man whisper something.

There was something in his head, something, something, something... nothing.

Usui and Miyaki both walked away, leaving Scott Hope collapsed on the sidewalk. They went straight to the Sunnydale airport to get back to their plane at LAX in time for the layover back to Japan. Cordelia, and everyone else, came at a run around the corner less than a minute later. She'd had a vision of what was happening, but it took too long for her to get everyone and get them to where they needed to be in time. They were too late.

Scott was admitted to Sunnydale's Long Term Care Ward that afternoon. His entire mind had been wiped clean. No memories, long-term or short-term. No knowledge, instinctual or otherwise. Everything about him had been deleted from his mind, and there was nothing that any of the Drifters, or Greg knew or could do to fix it.

_To Be Continued..._


	7. Programs

Programs:

Faith was dreaming. She heard her own voice speaking, but she was seeing...experiencing?... other things.

_Sometimes in life, bad things happen._

Kakistos stuck another poker into her watcher's body. The woman screamed more insults at him, but he just laughed and poked her again.

_But other times, if you allow it, very good things can happen._

Faith and Buffy fought the monster that was Kakistos. He knocked Buffy back and was about to go in for the kill when Faith slammed a four-by-four through his chest. He dissolved into dust before their eyes.

_A lot of the time, shit happens, and you deal with it._

Faith fighting half a dozen pasty-white demons with glowing orbs in their chests. Giles showing up and killing those that remained. Buffy, older and hardened by battle, standing next to Faith's bed as a Cure-User healed her wounds. Xander confronting the military commander of the refugee base. Seeing what happened to Scott.

_What matters in the end_

A man was walking down a familiar street. It was on Faith's patrol route. He glanced down at his watch, it was only a few minutes after nine. While he wasn't looking, a vampire lunged out from the shadows of the street and dragged him back, killing him and draining him dry in a matter of minutes.

_is what choices you make_

A young girl, around Faith's age, was making out with a college age boy. They were laying down on a stone tomb in a familiar looking cemetery, also on Faith's patrol route. The boy's watch showed it was a little before nine-thirty. The girl suddenly vamped out and half-drained the boy before shoving her slit wrist into his mouth, turning him.

_and what decisions are made_

Buffy was fighting a bunch of Trick's guys; vampires. She was fighting them alone, and it was clear she was outmatched, or soon would be. Buffy's digital watch, which glowed in the dark showed it was a few minutes before nine. It was clear that this fight, even if Faith helped her out, was going to take a good long while to win, if it could even be won. Faith also recognized this graveyard. It was on the complete opposite side of town from where the other attacks were going to take place. She had to make a choice, save innocent people from vampire attacks, or help her Sister Slayer in a fight she may not win.

_when the bad things happen..._

_Giles Apartment_

_One Week Later_

Faith woke up with a gasp.

"What the hell was that?" she asked herself. Glancing at the time, she noticed she had only a little while before she was due at the Library to plan their patrol routes for the night. Wiping the sweat from her brow, Faith reluctantly got up and got dressed for the evening. The dream kind of freaking her out a bit, she packed a couple extra stakes on her person and then stepped out of the guest room she was staying in, and made her way to Giles' living room.

"Ah, good evening Faith," Giles greeted her with a smile. "I wasn't expecting you up quite this early, so I'm afraid I'm not quite ready with the patrol routes and your weaponry as I normally would be..."

"Nah, no sweat G," she shrugged off his attempts at an apology, hiding her true feelings behind her usual bravado. "I was feeling antsy, and great as it is sleeping all day, I don't exactly need that much sleep in the first place. Hey, uh, thanks for letting me, y'know, crash."

"Think nothing of it," Giles said with aplomb. "The place was starting to feel a bit... empty of late. It's good to have company, especially one who appreciates genuine music and not just... noise." He shivered.

Faith smirked and actually tried to restrain the laugh in her throat, not truly succeeding unfortunately. "Yeah, B's still a club girl at heart. Anything with a beat that she can dance to and all that. Me, I'm all about the mood. And you can't beat good old fashioned rock and roll for whatever mood I'm in. And hey, the Beatles rock!"

"Yes, quite," Giles smiled and finished gathering some things. "Shall we go?"

"Five by five," she agreed.

She'd been staying with Giles ever since she and the others had gotten back from Psyren. She had only been able to stay one night, and not even the whole night, in her dingy apartment, before the nightmares of what all had gone on in that one little room of hers kept waking her up. There had been over twenty vamp attacks in that room alone! And every time she closed her eyes to sleep, she relived every single one of them in a flash!

She'd briefly considered going to Buffy, or even Xander, but after the whole Post deal, and given that Xander had been pretty pissed at her for going to Psyren, she went straight to option number three. Giles had a spare bedroom and merely offered it to her and asked her if it were all right that he play rock and roll at night when he couldn't sleep. It had been an odd arrangement for a bit, at first, but by now she was wishing she'd done it as soon as she'd gotten to Sunnydale.

Speaking of which, she'd was kinda feeling jibed when it came to the whole psychic power deal. While she hadn't been wholly forthcoming about the reason behind leaving her apartment, it was pretty clear to her by now that her little 'psychic gift' from the place she couldn't talk about was merely an upgrade to her already sucky Slayer Dreams power so that now _every_ dream was a fucking Slayer Dream!

Like she didn't have enough of the violence and blood and gore in her daily life already!

_Same Time_

"Pyrokinesis?" Amy repeated, staring at her friend incredulously.

"Yeah! Although it's actually something else entirely!" Willow whispered to her excitedly. "It's not just starting fires, I can actually control the flames, make shapes and stuff. But not big ones, and the more fire I use, the harder it is to control. I call it _Firefly_!"

"Wow, never would have figured you of all people for a pyrokinetic," Amy mused, smirking at Willow's flame-red hair.

"Yeah, I kinda had my heart set on having telekinesis like Xander, but this is really cool too," she held out her hand and Amy saw a small red spark hovering there over the girl's palm.

"Whoa, is that...? Wow," Amy stared at the psychic phenomenon.

The spark disappeared as Willow shook her hand. "Still have to work on my control, and if I dispel it too forcefully there's some psychic backlash. We're planning on going up into the woods next weekend, so we all can practice. I had to promise not to start any forest fires, not that I want to, it's just, like I said, I'm still working on control."

"I get it Willow," said Amy.

"Oh! Oh, I'm a bad friend!" Willow suddenly berated herself, "Here I am going on and on about what all I can do, and I haven't let you share at all! I'm so sorry, Amy! Please, please go on, tell me, what's your powers? How are you handling it? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Amy frowned and looked away. She tucked her hair behind her right ear and muttered, "Um, I, uh, don't have any power... Not psychic power at any rate..."

Willow blinked. Then tilted her head and looked at her fellow witch sideways.

"Uh huh," she said with much sarcasm. "And neither one of us have magic powers either. Don't worry, it's probably just something obscure and takes a while for you to figure out you're doing it. Greg actually says that most of the time, people have to tap into their psi and learn how to use it, rather than it just spontaneously showing up and..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know!" Amy shouted. "I was there for the lectures too, Willow! He told me that I have the power of _molecular manipulation of existing structural integrations._ I looked it up. _Aeffigikinesis._ The power to control structures, or effigies. Not even a real word, but it shows up online when you search for obscure psychic powers. It's a made up word that means absolutely nothing!"

"Uh, Amy, are you OK?" Willow asked, a bit scared at the sudden reaction.

"Look at this!" she held out an unused pencil, it hadn't even been sharpened yet. "I used my powers on it. Take it. Try to break it. Take it!"

Confused, Willow accepted the pencil and did as bid, trying to snap the barely seven inches length of wood and graphite. It was like trying to bend steel! Frowning, she tried to snap it on her knee. It may as well have been solid steel, except that it would would at least bent a little, even from the small amount of force she could put into it. Willow took a closer look at the pencil and tried scratching off the paint from the wood. After a solid minute of scratching, her fingernail was more damaged than the paint, which didn't show so much as a single mark.

"Uh, what did you do to it?" she asked, handing it back.

"I... I reinforced it. Problem is, I did it too well. Can't even sharpen the pencil now. I showed it to Giles during my break period and he had Buffy try and do the same thing. As you can see, it still doesn't have a mark on it."

"Amy! That's amazing! What are you so upset about?"

"Because I actually passed out after doing this! My powers may be amazing, but I'm not! I've got next to no power!"

"Well yeah," Willow exclaimed, surprised at how her usually intelligent friend could be so obtuse, "You probably put everything you had into it, no wonder it can't break! Amy! A _Slayer_ couldn't snap the pencil you... _reinforced_! Have you tried it on anything else?"

"No, I did that last night, and like I said, I passed out right after."

"Well, come on, let's go see what else you can do, and don't worry, I'll stop you before you use too much power. See if we can't moderate what all you can do. In the meantime, mind if I try something?" Willow indicated the pencil.

"Uh, sure, go ahead," Amy handed it back, surprised at her friend's sudden gung-ho attitude.

Willow called up a Firefly and had it encompass the entire pencil, and then even ignite the air around it to get some actual flames and fire going. She held it there for over three minutes. The pencil never caught fire, it didn't even smolder, and the paint didn't even melt!

It was warm to the touch after she let it go, but it cooled quickly, proving that whatever Amy had done to it didn't outright break the laws of thermodynamics, it also proved that she had fire-proofed the thing as much it could be possible to do so.

"Amy, what did you do to this thing?" Willow asked, amazed at what she held.

"Uh, I didn't know it could do that. All I know was that I couldn't use it as a pencil anymore since I can't sharpen it," the young witch frowned at her first experiment with her psychic powers.

"You said you reinforced it, right?" confirmed Willow. Amy nodded. "I think maybe what you did was you actually reinforced the properties of the molecules of the pencil. So much so that they don't react like they normally would. I mean, say you build two ships, both out of the same materials and in the same outward shape. In one, you make it like a cruise ship and use all the extra materials to make space for rooms and hallways and gyms and stuff. In the other, you use all of the materials to build nothing but structure supports and reinforce every piece of the hull so there's only space for the engines and whatever is on the deck. Which one survives an ice berg?"

"So that's what I did?" Amy frowned, taking a closer look at her pencil. "I turned a cruise ship into an actually unsinkable ship?"

"Or very nearly," said Willow. "I wonder if you could do that for all of our wooden stakes..."

"I told you, I passed out!"

"And you probably used way more power than you thought you were," Willow assured her. "Come on, let's go try out a couple things."

A few hours later, Willow and Amy stared in awe at all the 'junk' that had suddenly been transformed before their eyes. A rusted bike looked brand new, and performed like a bike at least a hundred dollars more expensive than it was when it had first been bought. Willow's very first computer, an IBM, hadn't worked for years, but Amy touched it for a few seconds and suddenly it was running better than it ever had. And as had been suggested, all of the wooden stakes they had available were now harder than steel, but weighed the same.

Amy, still slightly out of breath from her last reinforcement, stared at what she had accomplished. "I... I did all this? How? I mean, I know of about a hundred different spells that could do this, and from what I know about sorcery, there's something similar that can be done, but... it would take weeks of prep work! And more power than I could possibly have to do the same thing on the same scale!"

"Yeah, just like the difference I noticed when comparing fire magic with my Firefly," Willow giggled. "Hey, wouldn't it be awesome if we could somehow combine our powers? Using psi and magic together?" They both dissolved into giggles, which slowly came to a halt as they both gave the joke serious consideration.

"Conjuration magic isn't too far removed from this," Amy pointed out. "Same for protection spells, and repairing charms. Reinforce an object with my psi, and then enchant them with magic. Ooh, that would be powerful," the girl shivered with delight at the prospects.

"And I know what happens when I contain an ordinary fight with my psi," whispered Willow, "How powerful would it be with a magic flame being generated and constantly powering it? Powerful..."

"I'll help you research fire spells!" said Amy suddenly.

"I'll help you with everything else!" agreed Willow at the same moment.

They then made plans to spend as much of their free time as they could researching numerous spells that could work with their respective powers, and constantly working together at improving their psychic powers as much as possible over the next few weeks.

_Levinson Household_

_Night_

Jonothan was geeking out over the fact that he now had psychic powers. After the meeting at the Library, where he learned a lot more of the supernatural existed than he'd ever suspected; such as vampires, magic, other dimensions, and a whole lot more... well, he had to spend some time at the arcade in the mall just to calm down. After spending over thirty dollars in quarters, he reviewed what the genuine psychic, Gregory Magnus, had told him about his new abilities.

"Your Burst ability is a rare type that I've only seen a few times before. Potentially, it could be more powerful than my own and Xander's abilities. That is up to you however," Greg had told Jonothan when it had been the youth's turn in being scanned by Greg to identify his talents. "The type of power you have is called _Territory_. As the name implies, what happens is your psi spreads out over an area and everything within that area, your psi is able to affect with whatever special abilities it grants to you. As an example, I once knew a young man who could use his territory to control other people by affecting their shadows, so long as those people and their shadows were within his territory. The only other two I've met that had this ability, one could enact any rules he wanted to and those that broke the rules were punished how he saw fit, while the other was a doctor who could cover any territory that was deemed a Hospital or healing area, and within that area he could literally control who lived and who died with a vast arsenal of different abilities associated with medicine and being a doctor."

"Wow!" Jonothan exclaimed, then frowned. "But... how do I control it?"

"Here," Greg put his hands on the youth's shoulders, "Let me show you."

Suddenly Jonothan was intimately aware of what his psi was and how to tap into it. It was so glaringly obvious in hindsight, he was shocked that he'd missed it in the first place. What Greg was showing him, however, via Trance, was how to push his psi out until it established a boundary of controlled space around him, his territory. It was a lot like wrapping your hand, or even your whole body around an object, feeling everything your skin could tell you about it, only he was 'feeling' everything around him, and everyone. Suddenly it stopped and Jonothan was back to normal.

"There you go," Greg grinned and clapped him on the shoulders once more. "You can figure out the rest on your own, just be careful with it, all right? Anyway, the more powerful you are, the larger your territory can be, but the more experience you have, the better you can use it with what powers it does give you. As for exactly what powers those may be, well, like I said, you'll have to figure out that for yourself."

Now, Jonothan was on his way home, almost eager to try out and use his powers, but everyone's warnings about being careful and the need for secrecy stayed with him more than anything else, and he knew better than to break out an untested power in the middle of the shopping mall, or a busy street. He knew he should wait until he was home, or back with the others so he could practice with supervision, but he was a realist as much a dreamer. The moment he could safely do so, he would bring out his powers and do his absolute best to test their absolute limits.

At home, Jonothan found himself home alone, which is exactly the way he wanted it. So, locking himself in his room, he focused his psi like Greg had shown him and began to push his territory as far out as he comfortably could. To his surprise, he could actually see his territory expanding, turning everything into a negative-color image in the wake of it's progress. When it covered his entire room, he felt that he could push it more, but he wanted to start small and see exactly what powers his territory will gift him with, so he stopped it there, solidifying in his mind that where he stopped it is now _his_ territory. Something suddenly shifts and the negative-color lighting returns to normal, but everything else is different now.

Jonothan could now sense and knew _everything_ within his territory, but more than that, he felt absolute control for the first time in his life. On a whim, and just because the thought occurred to him, he changed himself into his ideal self-image, and then some. And while he, subconsciously, knew what he was originally, he suddenly _was_ his ideal version and everything was so much clearer and he could think so much better and thoughts were practically exploding throughout his mind. His analytical ability also skyrocketed and it took him but a single thought to realize what had happened and what his psychic powers truly were. He could control, influence, and manipulate anything and everything inside his territory.

He frowned, his new superbrain not quite enjoying calling his very unique new abilities by a category name. After all, Xander's powers, boiled down to it were just telekinesis and tele-viewing, but he came up with cool names like _Farscape_ and _Voyager_ and _Vygr_ for them. He'd have to give some thought to what he wanted his new power to be called, but in the meantime, he had more experimenting to do. Instinctively knowing that he could control everything inside his Territory didn't make it one hundred percent accurate.

He focused his powers on the room cleaning itself up. Nothing happened, at first, but suddenly he was moving around quickly and efficiently and at the same time a mysterious wind flew through the room and anything that could be moved by the wind was lifted up and put in the general area of where it was supposed to go. It wasn't exactly how he'd imagined it happening, but in the end, his room was cleaned up. Next he tried changing the furniture into different versions of themselves.

The sheets and blankets on his bed changed colors and stitching, but the wood and metal frame stayed the same. Same with the carpet, he could make it be tightly-woven or out-of-control shag, but it would still be a carpet floor, not hard wood or marble. The computer was harder. He could change the casing, but it was still the same computer. He could also boost the RAM and other, singular aspects of it, but if he did the appearance went right back to normal. An either-or type of thing it would seem.

So, Jonothan concluded, he wasn't a god, he certainly wasn't Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation either. But he had some, minor, but still some control over physical properties of matter. Not enough to affect physical states or to change molecules around, but overall configuration and some pigmentation alterations. Not to mention, his heightened brain quickly deduced, since he was in his territory and he'd somehow changed himself, he could obviously... well maybe not _control_, but certainly influence the minds and bodies of humans.

He needed to do some more experimentation. Maybe some physical tests, to see if maybe he could change other parts or capabilities of his body. Right now, it was like everything in his territory were dolls in a dollhouse that he could play with. The toys remained the same toys, but with his imagination he could make a simple G.I. Joe action figure into a serial killer robot, or a Smurf figurine into a blue Superman! Hey, maybe that's what he could call his ability; _Dollhouse_. Well, that was for later, now he had to find the other limitations of his Dollhouse Territory. Opening the door to his room, he stepped out...

... and staggered against the wall and nearly fell to the ground as his territory was suddenly breached, giving him a sudden and unprepared for psychic backlash. It took him a few minutes for his head to stop hurting, but once he was able, he tried to analyze what had just happened. Only to find that his ideal superbrain wasn't working anymore. Focusing his psi once more, he expanded his territory... and then stopped once it encompassed his whole body and focused on his territory being around his body at all times, rather than just being the room he was in at the time. He felt his power trying to accommodate his wishes, but it felt like that time he played twister when he was a kid and trying to turn himself into an inside-out pretzel. Focusing as hard as he could on what he wanted, he decided that moving while using his psi might help him, since remaining stationary would just make it easier to lock in one place. He took a few steps, and suddenly the strain lifted and he felt his ideal personality reaffirm itself, and his territory literally covered a few millimeters outward from his skin and moved with him.

A successful experiment, he thought, said thoughts incredibly clearer and more focused than ever before. Now for some more.

He ran and jumped up on the wall and did a Xena-style backflip. He felt muscles he knew he'd never had before flex beneath his suddenly cool and high-end clothing. He hadn't even noticed when his normal cotton shirt and blue jeans had changed into an all-black ensemble reminiscent of Keanu Reeves in the Matrix. Or when he suddenly had sunglasses on his face. Smirking, he decided it was time to patrol, except that a voice from his subconscious reminded him of the warnings from the others, and that he really did need to know what all he could do before field testing anything.

That was the voice of a coward, he thought, feeling overwhelming confidence in his new abilities.

It was the voice of reason and caution, the same voice thought back at him. Suddenly he was imagining what it was like if he couldn't maintain his psi and reverted back to normal in the middle of 'patrol' or a fight or something else dangerous that he wouldn't normally be able to handle.

Fair enough, his overconfident self that had been reshaped into Jonothan's ideal nature—which he wasn't liking too much all of a sudden—thought back. Decision made, he went back to his room, sat down at his computer and started pulling up every IQ, Logic, and trivia test that he could, as well as a few websites that could give him some ideas on how to test what he could physically do. He remembered Xander and Greg talking about Rise, using psi to boost one's physical abilities, but he hadn't been too sure he could use it. Now though, he knew he could use it, and quite easily and to full effect.

An hour later, Jonothan collapsed on his bed, feeling more tired and worked over than he'd ever felt in his life. When he stopped using his powers, however, the exhaustion went away like it never was, and while he was feeling lethargic, he was more alert than just a few moments ago. Getting back up and going over to his computer, he stared in stunned disbelief at what he saw there. He'd passed, with 100 percent, every single test, IQ, Logic, Trivia, Mathematics, Science, and several certifications! And it was _real_!

He'd really done it! He'd become his ideal self, and he was a freaking GENIUS! What else could he do with this power, he wondered.

"This is so cool," Jonothan said in the silence of his room.

Too bad he couldn't keep it going for much longer than an hour. At least that's what he was thinking right before he noticed a web page article opened on his web browser. It was about endurance training, and how it didn't just apply to running and physical exercise, but it could apply to specialty skills, such as mental exercises to let one maintain their focus for greater lengths of time. Jonothan grinned, glad for his cooler self's foresight and read throughout the article and several links about ways to 'exercise' various kinds of skills and talents. He could hardly wait until he was Ideal Jonothan all the time!

_Sunnydale High Library_

_Next Day_

Faith walked in to the Library in the mid-afternoon time, after school had let out for the day. Greg was finishing up a lesson with all the Drifters on their newly awakened psychic powers. One thing that he insisted upon was that it was only those with psychic powers be present, as a none-too-subtle hint to Buffy and Giles to clear out. After Giles had gathered his books and papers, one of which Faith noticed included the Journal from the future, he and his Slayer went off for some strictly Slayer-type-training, some of which he promised to Faith the next day during school hours when Buffy was otherwise occupied. It made Faith actually consider enrolling into school to get out of it, but only for a few moments.

"By preparing a set of instructions in their mind before releasing their Burst psi, psi-users can create programs that allow them to lessen the effects of using PSI on their minds and can gain a degree of control not otherwise obtainable," Greg explained to the group. "It could be as simple as 'pick up that book' or as complicated as the most detailed computer application on the market today. Some psi-users have a near unlimited amount of raw power and vastly potent abilities. Others have barely any power worth having and perhaps only a single ability that allows them to be called a psi-user in the first place. But one imaginative psi-user with only a single, low-power ability that knows how to use it and has thousands of programs will almost always be able to beat the freak with infinite power but only has one special attack/program."

"If you kids are actually worth my time, you've probably already started to figure some of this out," said Greg as he looked around the room at the Drifters, not that he knew they were called that.

"Some, yeah," Xander acknowledged. All around them all of the books in the library were organizing themselves according to catalog and naming and being put into their proper places on the shelves. At the same time, a broom and dust pan were cleaning in all the corners, as were a couple of dust rags, anything getting in their way being moved briefly until they were done before being returned to its proper place. In the cage, all the weapons and tools of the slaying trade had already been straightened and put in order during the lessons so far.

"And what do you call it?" Greg smirked, gesturing around the room.

"Call what?" Xander asked. They all noticed the cloud over his head was an opaque white, and while it seemed to shift with his mood and attention, it remained stationary. Despite using his Burst to full effect, the young man did not seem the slightest bit affected, whereas a month ago he would have collapsed from the strain already.

"The program you're using right now? To do all the chores during this lesson?" he said.

"Oh, this? It's like Star Wars, y'know, Force Push, Force Pull... Force Sweep?" Xander laughed a little bit. No one else did. "OK, I may be tapping into my subconscious ability to use my powers while my conscious mind is doing other stuff, but it's not the same."

"It's exactly the same, Xander!" said Willow. "Why are you here for this if you don't need to know it? The rest of us have a lot of catching up to do, and you could be studying!"

"I am," said Xander, blinking innocently. Except it really was innocently, because his homework was being done on the table behind them, the pages of the books turning on their own and the pencils writing on the paper all on their own as well.

"Besides," he further defended himself, "Just because I have the basics doesn't mean I know it all. Like that part about attaining a degree of control not otherwise obtainable?" he directed this towards Greg.

Greg grinned and held out his hand. One of the half empty soda cans on the table flew to it, and then remained hovering above it. "I think I know what you mean," he said, still grinning. "Not just easier ways of using your standard powers, but ways of using your powers that give you even more unique and special powers. Like being able to fly?"

"For starters," Xander grumbled. "I can stay stationary, and even make a staircase of sorts, but I can't actually pick myself up and move about, and I've picked up and moved about things that weigh a heck of a lot more than I do!"

"Flight is more complicated than you might think. Your perspective is always changing. So, from your point of view, it would be more like you're trying to move the whole world rather than just yourself. There's also a subconscious component, a bit of fear of falling that is inherent in every living thing. You'll figure it out."

"But... what was that about special attacks?" Jonothan questioned, even raising his hand and waiting to be called on before asking.

Greg was grinning again. He held the floating can before him and then whispered, just loud enough for them to hear, "_Crush_!"

Instantly the can was, aptly, crushed to the size and shape of an aluminum jawbreaker. While it hadn't been even half full, they'd all known it hadn't been empty by any means, but there was no trace of any spray or soda leaking out. The liquid, they all realized was equally crushed along with the can.

"_Explode_!" The crushed can did exactly that. All the girls screamed and everyone ducked and covered their faces. Everyone except for Greg that is, who called out, "_Shield_!"

When they had enough courage to look, they saw the can in mid-explosion, aluminum shrapnel and soda spray suspended inside a spherical force field that seemed to glow to their mind's eye.

"I've got more, but I trust this is sufficient for what you were asking me?" said the elder psychic, taking a bow.

"Can I do that?" asked Xander, his voice filled with awe.

"If you want, I suppose, but why not come up with some of your own things to do with your own power?" Greg suggested. "Homework time. Everybody come up with some kind of very simple program for them to use with their own psi, here and now before I leave. Everyone except for you Xander. You come with me, and I'll help you out with what I think it is you're missing here."

The Voyager cloud dispersed and everything that wasn't already organized flew to the shelves and the broom and dust pan went back into the cage alongside the weapons, all before Greg had turned around to leave, Xander on his heels.

In the wake of their departure, all of the Drifters immediately got started on figuring out their very first programs. Cordelia began working on her telekinesis, using the basis of what Xander had hinted at, Star Wars Force powers; Force Push, Force Pull, etc, etc, etc. Willow created a single Firefly and began trying different 'programs' with it, ones that wouldn't start a fire or hurt anybody that is. Considering she was a computer programmer/hacker, it wasn't too hard for her. Faith, on the other hand, had a different idea. She'd seen something pretty useful in what Greg had just done and she set about copying it as best she could in making her own version of a psychic shield.

Jonothan was about to bring out his Dollhouse, but a glance around the all-female but him room stopped him cold. Instead he decided to work on his "Doll" state, changing just himself and no one else with various personalities, skills, and natural aptitudes. He wasn't suicidal after all, no matter what his Doll-self did most of the time, he still knew when enough was enough. Amy, on the other hand, was at a loss of what to do, until Willow started making her Firefly bright with real light without getting hotter. She started practicing changing which properties her Reinforce allowed her to enhance in the materials at her fingertips. She also tried to see if instead of making something stronger, if she could make it weaker, maybe even compromise it entirely, giving her a kind of 'death touch' for inanimate materials.

They all kept at it until Xander and Greg returned, the former looking more thoughtful than smug as he'd been earlier. Greg, seeing their progress with their own eyes—Cordelia writing lines with a pencil and paper, Willow 'juggling' different colored fireballs made from pure psi, Faith and Jonothan sparing with their respective Rise powers active, and Amy withering one of the spare stakes lying around before restoring it with a touch and then making it nearly unbreakable—he cut their psychic practice short with a brief announcement.

"Better, much better. All of you, excellent work," he said. "Now that you've got the basics down, all you need is practice and experience. And since I'm not about to risk revealing psychic powers to the world by blowing up a high school, it is high time we moved these little training sessions of ours to somewhere more..."

"Secure?" Jonothan suggested, back to 'normal' now.

"Private?" Willow offered, dismissing her Fireflies with a wave of her hand.

"Cooler?" Cordelia said, distracted as she was still trying to write out her name with her telekinesis.

"... Remote," Greg finished belatedly. "Where you can use your powers without fear of hurting others, or having to hide or clean up after yourselves. I'll meet you all here tomorrow after school, and then we'll take a van to a place I have in mind. For now though, good work!"

_Wilkins State Park_

_Mountains to the North of Sunnydale_

"Think you've got it now?" Greg asked as he watched Xander walk up to the edge of the cliff.

Sweating nervously, Xander could only shrug as he answered, "Thinking is what I'm all about these days. Besides, I need to get this mastered. The sooner the better."

"We can start off smaller," the older psychic offered.

"And risk the property damage?" Xander laughed, though it was a hollow laugh as he nervousness largely took away from his humor.

It was the weekend. For the past several days, Greg had met the Drifters in the back of the school, piled them together in a six-seater van and driven straight to the public parking area of the National Park and then proceeded to hike them so deep into the woods that without Rise powers, it would take a normal person two days to reach, where for them they got there within half an hour, tops. And that was with Amy and Jonothan, the slowest of the bunch of them, dragging them down!

Here, they'd practiced and worked out a number of programs and exercised their powers without fear of reprisal or worry about damage control. Willow had started, controlled and stopped several acre-wide forest fires already. Jonothan, under Greg's supervision, found out what he could do with _other people_ in his Territory. Cordelia did the whole 'Jedi-Training-On-Dagobah' thing, having learned after the first time out to change for a heavy workout rather than to dress to impress, and doing the whole handstand levitating stuff thing as well as exercising her Rise so well that she was among the fastest of them all, save for Faith and Greg. And Xander, well, he'd been trying to finish up his Flying Program and actually take flight. Today he was going to do it.

He hoped.

"Whenever you're ready," Greg said in reply.

"I know, I know," he sighed and then closed his eyes, envisioning his goal, letting the program build itself from his subconscious, where his powers were based.

At first he tried to just pick himself up from the ground directly, but that somehow made it more difficult. Then, as he felt the program take hold, but still not powerful enough to make him airborne from where he stood, he decided to see if maybe he gave it a little bit of help. And so he jumped.

Not down, though he was really close to that cliff, but up in the air. He jumped a lot higher than he ever had before, and what made it that much cooler was that the program caught him and he stayed 'up' rather than fell back down.

"Whoa-oa-wahoh... oh, ohh-kay, there we go!" he coached himself through it as he tried to remain upright from four feet off the ground. He was having a little bit of trouble remaining oriented, but he wasn't falling yet, so he called that good progress.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Greg commented from the sidelines. "Take your time with it. Try to make the program adaptive. For now, just see how well and how long you can maintain it."

"I'm good... I think!" he started cartwheeling a bit, but managed to keep from flipping out, literally.

A few more cartwheels and actual flips, not to mention bumping into stuff, and pretty soon Xander got the hang of it. He had also exhausted himself just from hovering in one place for a quarter hour. Setting himself down gently, he took a break for a while, getting his energy back.

"So?" Greg asked once his student was back on the ground.

"Definite work in progress," Xander admitted, "but progress is being made. I think it's just fear and stamina limitations that are keeping me from the high altitudes right now. Way I built the program, I could probably go cross-continental without too much difficulty. Wind sheer is easily handled, added a windshield to the program while I was up there. Just need to wait for the headache to subside."

"Don't push yourself," Greg warned, then corrected himself, "Sorry, I meant don't kill yourself, but do actually push yourself, otherwise you won't progress and get over, as you called it, your stamina problem."

"Thanks I'll keep that in mind," Xander said with no small amount of sarcasm. "Can you? Fly, I mean?"

Greg shrugged and then stepped out into open air and stood there as though he were on some invisible platform. And though he could not see it, Xander could feel the psi being used so for all he knew there _was_ an invisible platform there.

"We all have our own methods," the older psychic answered Xander's question with a shrug. "But I would expect every psychokinetic in the world can use some variation of their powers to defy gravity and fly like a bird. You just won't catch them out in the open practicing, for fear of discovery."

"Doubt I'll have much to worry about that here," the younger remarked. "Way people react when weird stuff happens in Sunnydale, I imagine I could go total _Akira_ and the next day nobody would blink twice at me or the state of everything, they'd just blame it on some storm or earthquake or something and then move on."

"Yeah, that is both convenient and concerning," Greg said.

"That's the Hellmouth," Xander replied jadedly.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, but further down the mountain, Jonothan, Amy and Willow were practicing with their own programs.

Willow was working at controlling multiple Fireflies, having already gotten the program down to make a single spark of flame-creating-psi do pretty much whatever she wanted, from attacking, shooting out like a bullet, expand into a literal flame shield, anything she could imagine basically. It was in controlling more than one at the same time that she began to run into concentration problems, even with the aid of Programs to take the heavier load. At the moment her comfortable limit was three, so she was working with five at the moment.

Jonothan was working on expanding his Territory's range and the details at which his Dollhouse could influence and control what went on within said range. As he'd previously discovered, he did not become an instant god, so while he could a lot of amazing things with it, there were still rules he had to follow with doing them. Number one of which was; no rewriting reality. The other things he'd discovered, as far as limitations, were that he could not create something out of nothing. If he did create or change something, or someone, then the potential for that change existed on some level, even if it were only a quantum level. Another was energy was still energy, whether it be psi, physical, elemental, or magical, while he could influence it with his own psi energy and etc, Newton's Laws and the laws of thermodynamics still applied. Last limitation he'd discovered thus far was other forms of psi still worked within his Territory, no matter what he did to prevent its use by the others, when it occurred to them to do so, they could still use their powers and the Programs they'd developed, almost like an instinct, even when he had them in a Doll state, as he'd coined the term.

For example, to each; for a physical object, say he turned a red apple green. The possibility for that to happen existed, because either the apple had originally been green, or the mapping for such existed in its genetic code somewhere. Turning the apple into an orange or a bunch of grapes, however, more difficult, but still possible because they were all fruits and go back far enough in the genetic coding and pretty much all fruit came from the same plant. It was not possible for him to turn the apple into a puppy or a bird or a hand grenade. Because the possibility, the potential for that existence just simply did not exist, period. Thus, no rewriting of reality.

Same thing for people. Jonothan-Doll, his ideal self, was possible because the potential for that existed within his mind and body. And it didn't just have to be things like 'if he acted more confident' or 'if he started exercising and eating right'. It could be like 'what if he exercised every day of his life straight from the crib?' and 'what if he'd been hunting demons since he was a child?' and millions of other scenarios, all culminating in the existence of his Doll state. Same for the others, he just had to imagine the right 'what if' questions and Program in his image of what potential answer there could be to the question and the Program did the rest, adjusting and influencing the persons mind and body so long as they were in his Territory.

As for energy and the laws of physics, well, again, no rewriting reality. So if somebody shot a bullet at him and the bullet entered his territory, while he could change the properties of the bullet from hollow point or armor piercing to a musket ball or old western slug, the energy of the bullet spinning and being fired at the speed it was shot with remained constant, so the bullet would still be flying. No deflecting or stopping bullets in mid-air, even if he pushed air resistance to the same as if the sun were a black hole, at best it would slow it down or redirect it _slightly_, but not stop it. Same for psi, wind, water, fire, lightning, flying bodies, everything. No rewriting reality means dealing with the physical world same as everybody else, just able to change the potential of people and objects already in his Territory without breaking the laws of physics.

As for how psi still worked, well, Amy was helping him work that out now.

The two were sparring and all three of them were in a Doll state, a psychic overlay of potential possibilities that resulted in a whole new personality with either enhanced, or very different skills and powers. For himself, Jonothan-Doll had his 'standard' load out of near-Slayer-level strength, speed, stamina, basically the whole super soldier package, to say nothing of the raw intelligence and supreme instincts he possessed alongside his confidence.

Willow, however, was stuttering every other word, dressed in heavy wool, long sleeves, and ankle-length skirt, all of them earth-tones. But she was using a level of magic that none of them had ever seen from her before, able to tap into and fully utilize all four elements and she could raise and lower a protection circle faster than the other two could blink! As for her psi, she had no difficulty calling it up or using the Programs she'd already devised, it was just like she'd spent the same few days practicing and perfecting them with her current personality rather than her normal one. Jonothan had a feeling that if they spent the time to ask 'her', she'd probably tell them that she had, but with slightly altered memories.

Amy, the moment her Doll state took effect, had changed from her normal attire to an all black ensemble more in tune with a goth or emo groupie, complete with spike and chain jewelry and goth make-up. That was something else that was rather distinctive about Jonothan's ability, along with the mind and abilities, usually the clothes changed too. _She_ was shooting off dark spells that had the both of them on the defensive from the word go, and though Jonothan had crafted her Doll state to be way more magic-oriented rather than physical fighting, she had already proven that some things ran deeper than a personality, by picking up a couple sticks, transfiguring them into either arrows, spears, and even a sword and shield, and then she'd used her psi to Reinforce them and then attacked with them, as they'd been training with her to do over the past couple days. What made it such a big deal was that the Imprint Jonothan gave her was specifically created with the parameter in mind; she hates fighting physically, and should only fight with magic!

It being their fifth such bout within the past six hours, Jonothan felt the experiment had run its course and acknowledged the limitation for what it was. Something to keep in mind for the time when he used his abilities against unfriendly psychics in the future. Deciding to move on, he tried to see if he could 'change' things while things were still very much active between the 'Dolls', hopefully without having to withdraw and then reactivate his Territory.

After all, Greg had given them the advice that it was easier in the long run to just create a new Program and overlay it on an out of control or older one, than it was to forcefully terminate and start a new one. He just hadn't actually tried to do it as of yet, always just stopping his powers after the Programs had run their course, so to speak. Well, now was as good a time as any.

"C'mon you muggles, is that all you've got! You are pathetic! You are..." Goth-Amy was saying right as the new Program took effect. "... You... are... uh, you are _so_ going down, yeah! Woohoo! Yay!" Amy's clothes hand changed from black emo to perky cheerleader, literally she was wearing the Sunnydale High cheerleader uniform, though instead of the yellow sweater it was a midriff-baring armored vest with a couple of swords across the back. Her hair, which had been a dark crimson, which actually seemed to be her natural hair color, was now bleach blond to the roots and done up in twin ponytails. Oh, and she was now wielding a chainsaw.

"I wouldn't count me out just yet, blondie," Willow stated. She was now dressed in white cargo pants, and a tight fitting sleeveless black turtleneck. Her red hair flowed around her head in a halo, reminiscent of an open flame as she struck a pair of matches with each thumb and within moments had basketball sized fireballs in either hand. "I'm just getting warmed up."

Jonothan too had changed. He'd felt for a while now that he was limiting himself if he stuck with 'Jono-Doll', the perfect version of himself. He had other potentials that he could fulfill, ones that not even Jono-Doll could accomplish. So, while focusing on a program that would have the other two utilize their psychic talents to the maximum potential available to them, for him he went the other route.

Jono-Doll never used magic, and he'd become rather curious if it was possible for him to use the mysterious force that these two friends studied and used so easily... with his help of course. So, in this Program, while he made them 'experienced' demon hunters that primarily utilized their psychic powers, he made himself an 'experienced' magician, fulfilling his magic potential, whatever it may end up being, to his full capabilities. The effect was, well, rather startling.

He now wore round thick-framed coke-bottle glasses, and he actually needed them to see clear enough to even walk straight. His hair was longer and rather shaggy, as though he spent the absolute minimum amount of time and effort to keep it clean and tangle-free. His clothes were in a similar state, which wasn't saying much from his normal attire, except these clothes were just jeans, sandals, and an overly large t-shirt, rather stained, that came to his knees actually. Also, all the muscles that he'd had moments ago had disappeared. He wasn't fat or chubby, or even the out-of-shape state of his normal appearance. Far from it, he was actually quite skinny and very pale, like he spent all his time indoors, but as with his appearance he hardly took the time to eat more than the bare minimum.

The reason for this unsightly appearance became obvious to Jonothan as his mind exploded with information. Magic spells, ritual circles, alchemical formula, incantations and more! Knowledge and experience of studying and understanding magic flooded his thoughts as he understood exactly what he could do, what he was best at, what he wasn't, and everything inbetween. He demonstrated this with the first thing he did, which was to cast out his hands and trap both girls in separate binding circles. Something that should have taken a normal witch or wizard at least a full minute to cast, not counting the full incantation and focusing medium. And he'd just done it by pointing his hands at them! Twice! At The Same Time! With _Different Spells_!

Only problem was... he seemed to be even more shy than he naturally was. Part of gaining such a mastery of magic was sequestering himself away from practically all human contact for the majority of his life. It was only the knowledge and 'memories' of his true self that kept the uber-shy mage from squeaking like a mouse and teleporting away. Somehow, Jonothan knew that his Doll State would remain active even while teleporting, reverting back to the simpler state of being skin-tight as to the wide-area effect he was using at the moment. It also helped if he thought of the whole thing as one big experiment. Scholars are all about the experimenting, Mage Scholars especially. Jonothan decided to call this one 'Jono-Mage'. And _only_ to pull him out when they *_really*_ needed a heavy-hitting magic user, big time.

"Uh, like, what's the big deal, dude?" the zombie-slaying cheerleader asked, revving her chainsaw.

"Yeah, and, uh, why can't I move, damnit!" the pyromaniac redhead cursed, using her flames as thrust to try and leave the red-glowing magic circle that had her trapped.

"Th-that w-would b-be m-my fault, I s-sup-pose," Jono-Mage stuttered, not really looking either of them in the eye. "A... a simple b-binding spell, to cease all hostilities b-before anyone could, well, c-could get hurt, you see?"

"No, I don't!" Pyro-Willow growled, igniting flames practically all over, not that it made any difference.

"Does this, like, mean we're done for the day?" Chainsaw-Amy asked, popping her gum in her mouth.

Having proven that it was possible to change up the program with his Territory still active, and with the terminally shy Jono-Mage still in charge, he saw no reason not to go ahead and terminate the experiment for the day. "Y-yeah, OK," he mumbled before withdrawing his territory, automatically ending the programs, thankfully without the psychic backlash as he'd already learned how to keep that from happening. Incidentally, he'd also learned how to do it intentionally, if he ever happened to get a 'bad guy' in his Territory and wanted to disable him, or her, before releasing them from his control.

"OK, first off," Jonothan said once they were all back to normal in the forest, "I have no control over the costumes, that is entirely because of the personalities, your personalities! Second, I have no control over what those personas say or do after they're Imprinted! Last, thanks for not killing me?" he squeaked the last part, cringing a bit when both witches walked up to him.

"Jonothan," Amy began. "Do not _ever_ turn me into a cheerleader, _ever_ again! And next time, try and keep me on the good magic side of things. That was... not pleasant."

"But you were like super powerful. And hey, we didn't even get to see what our psychic trained Dolls could do! I wanted to see how much I can blow stuff up with!" Willow said, excited. They both stopped and looked at her. Noticing their looks, she shrugged and said, "What?"

Sighing, Amy shook her head, exasperated. "Well, somebody obviously had fun being in Jono's Dollhouse. But being a dark witch, no matter how powerful, was not fun. Not after it was over. And the cheerleader thing reminds me of..."

"Oh Amy, I'm so sorry," Willow immediately apologized. "I didn't think..."

"It's all right," the blond shook off the redhead's touch. "Just..."

"Right, got it, no more cheerleader, and keep the magic focused on good magic," Jonothan nodded.

"How did both of you get so powerful without going dark, anyway?" she asked as they started walking back to the campground, now that their training for the day was done.

Jonothan shrugged and answered for both, "In the first place, I just put into the program that both of you relied more on your magic skills and abilities than your psychic abilities, which we've been training in for a few weeks now."

"To give yourself an advantage, no doubt," Amy remarked.

He shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it. "I just wanted the Program to reflect that your first instinct would be to cast a spell than to Reinforce some hand held weapons, or use Firefly to spark a fireball. Instead, you both stuck with the same tactics and strategies you've been using in training for the past week or so. Yes, you used magic primarily, but you still used your psychic skills and powers, which the Program was supposed to circumvent."

"But all it did was enhance, or evolve us along the path of magic we're already one," Willow pointed out, a bit uncomfortably as well. She'd thought she'd finally gotten over the worst of her shyness, but apparently focusing on magic to bring it to the level she'd been using while in Doll State brought it back with a vengeance.

"That's a scary thought," Amy muttered, looking down at her hands.

"When I tried to add another Program on top of it, which is what we planned on trying today anyway, I wanted to see what would happen if I used magic instead of relying on my usual Doll State, and also went the other direction with you two. The new Program was just supposed to turn you into experienced demon hunters that primarily utilized their psychic powers. Unfortunately, that version of me is so shy, I think he was about to have an actual heart attack from being so close to two girls."

"Ah, is lil Jono scared of being around beautiful women?" Amy teased, laughing.

"No," he answered seriously, ignoring the teasing entirely. "I mean it, he wasn't shy because you two are pretty. He was panicking because you're girls! If it had been Xander and Greg there instead, I think he would have tried running away instead. With you two, he was breaking out in cold sweat and did whatever you told him to do after stopping you from hurting each other."

"Yikes," Willow commented. "Shouldn't bring him out when there are girls on the other side of the fight then. Would he actually run away if it came down to a fight?"

Jonothan considered it for several moments, before reluctantly nodding his head. "I can't remember all the stuff he knows or could do, same as with Jono-Doll, but what I can remember of him was that he has spent pretty much all his life, from the moment he could walk, talk, read, and wash himself, he's been in seclusion, studying magic. He knows other people exist, but he doesn't know how to deal with them. Taking his memories from me, he'll probably treat any aggressive male as a potential bully and use his magic to avoid a confrontation, instead of confronting him. Same as he did with you two..."

"Cordelia," they both said at the same time. "Aggressive female," Amy added. "Obeying her and doing whatever she wants," Willow concluded.

"And you two are my friends, and I hate seeing friends fight," Jonothan pointed out. "Hence why he used binding spells, instead of a couple of lightning bolts."

"You'll have to work on that Program a bit, Jonothan," Amy said as they entered the campground where Faith and Cordelia were completing their own psychic exercises. "A magic user of that caliber would be useful in any number of circumstances, but we can't have him going rogue on us."

"I'll work on it," he promised. "How are you two doing?" he asked the Slayer and Seer.

"Badly," Cordelia answered with a smug look in Faith's direction.

The dark haired Slayer scowled and shot the dark haired cheerleader a dirty look, but refrained from speaking, instead concentrating on what was in front of her. Which at the moment was a bowl of water. She was trying to use her burst on it, but in spite of what Greg and everyone else had told her, it wasn't happening. Cordelia, on the other hand, was doing a one-handed handstand while various rocks, pine cones, leaves, and other things floated around her. Well, to be honest, it was no more than four things at once, but that was only because she was simultaneously using her telekinesis to balance herself without wobbling. Clearly, she wasn't on Xander's level, but it was quite impressive progress for the once reluctant Seer.

"Leave her alone, Cordelia!" Willow snapped at her childhood tormentor. She was, of course, ignored.

"I don't need nobody's help, Red," Faith said from where she was staring angrily into the bowl of water.

"I wasn't... I mean, I..." Willow said, flustered.

Thankfully, she was interrupted from having to further defend herself to a frustrated Slayer, by a loud shout from overhead. "_WOO HOO_!"

Looking up, they were stunned to see Xander flying through the treetops, actually flying, like something from the comics! Jonothan immediately smiled wide and cheered. Willow cried out, though from fear or excitement not even she could say for sure. Amy, Cordelia and Faith just stared open mouthed, and with a lot of jealousy. Cordelia flipped herself upright and dropped the program that had been holding up the other objects, and Faith stood to her feet and tried to get a better angle of tracking the flying psychic.

"WHOO-WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!" he then came to a screaming halt, dropping and then flying smack into a tree.

"I feel that there was a joke there we just missed out on," Faith commented with a wry laugh.

"Ow," Xander groaned from where he was stuck in the branches.

"Are we done for the day?" Cordelia asked, sounding bored. "I need to get to the mall before it closes."

"Yes," Greg answered from just behind the young psychics, "We are done for the day. You can all go about your business. Oh, by the way, I am taking Christmas off, just so everyone is clear, that means I am not going to be in town. Besides, you've all progressed to the point of self-study. I'll help where I can with any last minute pointers, and definitely with the demon hunting, but this favor for an old friend has already taken up more of my time than I planned on."

"What, just like that?" Xander called as he floated down from the tree he'd crashed into. "Dude, I still have no idea how to do half the stuff you can! And everyone else is just getting started."

"Yeah Mr. Psychic," Faith added while proudly presenting her assets, "are you sure you don't want to stick around for a while longer?"

Clearing his throat, Greg shot the young Slayer a warning look before replying, "Tempting as it is to start a school of Psi, and Heaven only knows how this would even be possible in the first place, I've got other commitments and responsibilities. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning you, but for the holiday season, you are all doing self-study with your programs. If you get stuck or can't think of anything else to do, well... we'll see where you're at come the New Year, all right?"

They all grumbled, but were definitely unhappy to lose their teacher. As much as they hid from him, it was nice to have somebody they could talk to and who could understand about their new abilities.

"See you later!" he called, suddenly halfway down the trail. It wasn't until a moment later that they all remembered Greg was the one that drove them up here, and chances were that he wasn't going to be waiting around for them at the van!

"Shit!" Xander shouted first, activating his new Flight Program and jumping into the air. He still wobbled a bit, but he was soon gaining altitude and picking up speed.

"Oh hell no!" Cordelia was the next to realize and react, racing down with her Rise at full.

After that, the rest kind of figured it out for themselves and wasted no more time in commentating over it, activating their own Rise and racing after Cordelia and Greg. All of them envying Xander for his new found flying ability, which undoubtedly gave him an unfair advantage in the race to the car.

_Summers Residence_

Faith was dreaming. She'd hoped by changing what bed she slept in she could change the kinds of dreams she was having. One week at Giles' place, one week in Cordy's pool house, a weekend or two at Red's place while the parents were away, and now she was trying Buffy's hoping that maybe, just maybe, the Psyren enhanced Slayer Dreams would skip her and hit the blond instead.

So much for hope.

_Hope. A dangerous and powerful emotion. A state of mind really._

The old man from her earlier dreams, walking down the empty street. There was more detail this time. She could see that he was holding a small carry-on luggage case, a newspaper sticking out of the pocket. She saw the date. She also saw that it was stuffed with clothes and hospital scrubs. The man was a doctor!

_Hope can elevate a person to the next plateau. Allow them to move on from tragedy..._

She saw the couple again, earlier in the evening it seemed, walking into the grave yard. His eyes were sparkling and he was smiling, filled with life and love. Her eyes were cold and while she smiled, there was a hint of lustful malice behind it. Instantly, Faith knew the vampire was a minion. She'd seen it before, she'd see it again, standard bait and bite.

_...live life to the fullest..._

She saw their deaths again. The old man dragged into the alley and drained, the boy killed and turned.

_...and face up to the worst of the worst without flinching._

Buffy fighting again. Outnumbered, being pushed back. And then she saw it, one of the sword wielding vampire soldiers sneaking up behind her. She was too tired, too worn from battle to notice him amidst all the others. She watched as he got a lot closer than any of the other vampires had gotten, his sword poised to strike!

_But hope can be a curse too. It ties us to what was, what we wish had been, what could be..._

Suddenly she was in a hospital operating room. The old man, the doctor operating, the date and time displayed on the wall behind him, a week after the attack at almost the same time! He was operating on a young woman. Suddenly she was dying, flat-lined. He worked steadily, not panicking like all those around him. Within moments, her heart started beating again, and it was clear to all she would live.

_...hope can make us fight for the what ifs instead of the what is. Holding us back. Keeping us down._

The time was years later. The man's family celebrating his retirement, awards and pictures and news clippings and hand drawn pictures a memorial testament to the lives he saved over the years. That he... could save... over the years... if he lived.

_Until hope turns to bitterness and avarice, as we never get what we want and envy what we don't have._

The boy, now a young man, meeting another pretty young woman, a human woman. They smile, shake hands, kiss, date, enjoy life and fall in love. They marry. They have children. Their children become heroes. A granddaughter is a potential Slayer. The son a police officer, the daughter a nurse. The nurse helps save a life that will help save the world, stopping something terrible from happening. She can't see what but she knows it just the same!

_Hope is nothing but dreams and wishes... until someone has the _Faith _to act. The _Will _to do something._

Suddenly the attacks change. Faith... _she_ is there! She grabs the vamp in the alley and stakes it before the man even leaves the coffee shop. Any other vampires in the area quickly take off and the doctor makes it home safely, never knowing how close he came to death. She's there, pulling the vampire seductress off the tomb right before it can strike and dusts it before the scared kids eyes. The vampire with the sword poised to strike Buffy in her blind side suddenly goes flying. _Xander_ is there, silently but effectively watching Buffy's back, ensuring that she'll come to no harm, though she may not even know it!

_Live in hope, have faith in your choices, and choose _LIFE!

Faith's eyes snapped open as she gasped awake.

_To be continued..._


End file.
